Most SC judges bank on shares as investment

Justice Raveendran Holds 19,773 Shares In 57 Firms

Justice R V Raveendran, who had offered to recuse himself from hearing the RIL-RNRL dispute saying he held equal number of shares in each, appears to be among Supreme Court judges who favour the stock market as an investment option. He could also be among judges with the maximum number of shares, 19,773 to be precise, in as many as 57 companies. Though he does not specify the market value of these shares which seem to have been purchased long back given the ancient names of the companies he has mentioned, it appears that he would be neck and neck with Justice S H Kapadia who estimated the market value of shares held by him at Rs 20 lakh.

Their spouses also appear to have invested in the stock market in equal measure. While Justice Kapadia’s wife holds shares worth Rs 19 lakh, Justice Raveendran’s wife holds as many as 10,616 shares in 43 companies. Of the 19,773 shares held by Justice Raveendran, 772 were in Mukesh Ambani’s RIL and 783 in Anil Ambani’s RNRL. He also holds shares in Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd (783), Reliance Energy Ltd, now bifurcated to Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Power Ltd, (840) and Reliance Capital Ltd (821).

Interestingly, Justice Raveendran’s wife holds 314 shares each in RIL and RNRL in addition to shares in Reliance Capital (15), Reliance Energy (22) and Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd (314). While Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan, Justice B Sudershan Reddy, Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice H L Dattu have not invested in shares, others have done so. Justice Markandey Katju even stated that some of his shares in different companies were not traceable. Almost all judges bought these shares as lawyers, before their appointment as judges. Justice D K Jain also holds a large number of shares — 6,812 in 37 companies. His wife holds 3,333 shares in 31 companies. Justice V S Sirpurkar holds 3,693 shares in 20 companies while his wife holds 1,617 shares in eight companies.

Justice G S Singhvi has stated that his investment in mutual funds was to the tune of Rs 7.2 lakh, while that of his wife was Rs 8.5 lakh. CJI owns 12 Ares of land: Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan owns a little more than 12 Ares of land, which is less than one acre. It was inadvertently referred to as 12 acres on Tuesday. Justice Tarun Chatterjee does not own an entire building in Kolkata but a 2/3rd share in it, which is an ancestral property used fully as dwelling house, the SC Registry clarified.

Source:- Source:- The Times of India 4 November 2009 P. 15 Delhi