How far should the assets of Judges be disclosed to the public? Judges discuss during UNODC Global Judicial Integrity Network Webinar

A webinar on “Financial Disclosure System for Judges” by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Global Judicial Integrity Network saw judges from three different countries express their views on how far judges must be made obligated to disclose their financial assets in the interest of guarding against judicial corruption. .The Webinar saw the participation of Chief Justice Duro Sessia, Judiciary of Croatia, Former President of the Consultative Council of European Judges; Aneta Arnaudovska, former Judge from North Macedonia, Expert at the Regional Anticorruption Initiative and former Indian Supreme Court Judge, Justice (retd.) Madan Lokur, who presently serves a Judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji.."Bottomline is that such data should be available, but not on the internet."Chief Justice Sessia.Chief Justice Sessia highlighted that the public declaration of judges' assets does not always serve the purpose for which it is intended. .Whereas the purpose is to find out cases of illegal enrichment and prevent judicial corruption, Chief Justice Sessia observed that public access is prone to misuse..“I don’t think they contribute to the integrity of the judges because the data is falsely shown or shown mala fide through the media. So they do not serve the purpose... Data is presented intentionally to confuse the general public and to put the judge in a position to give another explanation", he observed..He went on to opine that if judges' assets are declared, it should only be possible to access that data for lawful reasons. The media would be included in the persons who may be given access. However, primarily, access to this data should be created for parties before the judge concerned, Chief Justice Sessia said. ."I am rather conservative on this issue, I can’t help myself", Chief Justice Sessia remarked. .A robust asset declaration system that would be implemented in a non-selective way is important.Judge Arnaudovska .Judge Arnaudovska opined that the focus should be on the creation of a comprehensive framework for judges' asset declaration with guidelines on time limits and the scope of the declaration, so that the verification methodology is not selective in choosing only certain judges for scrutiny. .She explained that if the public perceived only certain judges being selected for asset verification, it may undermine the public trust in the judiciary. .In countries where judicial corruption allegations are not investigated properly, judges end up being used as collateral damage in election campaigns when the allegations made against certain judges are misused by politicians to their advantage, she observed. .If there are allegations of judicial corruption, they must be investigated individually, Judge Arnaudovska said. She added it is important to have a robust judges' asset declaration system that would be implemented in a non-selective way. .A lot of trust involved.Justice Madan Lokur.While briefing the audience on the manner in which judges in India are expected to disclose their assets in sealed covers before High Courts (for lower court judges) and Chief Justices of Constitutional Courts (for High Court and Supreme Court judges), Justice Lokur observed that the present system employed for asset scrutiny involves a lot of trust. ."It is a matter of trust where the Constitutional judges are trusted to give correct information", Justice Lokur remarked..He added that where there are complaints found credible, prima facie, they will be looked into and investigated..Justice Lokur, however, made note to inform that the Delhi High Court is an exception in India given that it is the only High Court where the asset declarations of judges are available to the public on the website..He recounted how this came to pass while he was on the High Court Bench."We discussed this in the Delhi High Court in 2009…One of the issues discussed was is there any harm in disclosing it on the website in the Delhi High Court? Some judges were of the view that placing it on the websites is dangerous in terms of security. So there was a debate for about two days on whether it should be placed on the website or not. At the end of the two day discussion it was decided that there’s no harm. If somebody wants to know what are the assets (of a judge) that person can always find out by hook or crook. This was in 2009.".Responding to a question on whether the public disclosure of judges' assets may give rise to security risks for the judges, Justice Lokur also added that, ."Between 2009 and today - 11 years - there has been no security risk to any judge of the Delhi High Court for declaration of assets. Perhaps the fear is somewhat exaggerated. At least, that is the experience we had in Delhi."Justice Lokur