India

Top Indian Bureaucrats’ Property Declarations Reveal Gaps in Disclosure

By Shyamlal Yadav

Every year, Indian bureaucrats must declare the immovable assets they own, a requirement introduced in 2011 to curb corruption and increase accountability. A review by The Indian Express of the latest mandatory filings shows that the safeguard is loose. Of 131 Secretary‑level officials, the newspaper accessed the declarations of 102 posted on official portals on March 31, 2026. The filings show 244 self‑acquired properties, but 115 lack area or dimension details and another 115 do not list a current value. Ten officials declared “nil” self‑acquired properties.

Key findings from the 102 officials’ declarations include: - The 244 properties consist of 219 residential, three commercial and 22 agricultural parcels. - Forty‑four officials or their spouses own three or more self‑acquired properties. Seven own five each, 13 own four each and 24 own three each. - The top holder is a Secretary‑rank IAS officer with eight properties, seven in Kerala and one in Meghalaya. - The second is another Secretary‑rank IAS officer with six properties in Maharashtra, UP and Delhi, including three in Mumbai and a DDA flat in New Delhi.

The 102 officials include 95 Central Government Secretaries (attached to the President’s Secretariat, Prime Minister’s Office, NITI Aayog and the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser) and Chief Secretaries of 28 states and eight Union Territories. The Express tracked only self‑acquired immovable assets, not ancestral ones.

Additional details from the filings: - The “present value” column is filled for only 129 of the 244 properties; the rest are marked with phrases such as “not known”, “value not determined”, “as per circle rate”, “not valuated”, “not assessed”, “not ascertained” or “no assessment made”. - The ten officials who declared no self‑acquired property include an IAS officer from the J&K cadre who has declared “nil” every year since 2011; the other nine had declared assets in earlier filings but not in the latest. - Residential properties with declared measurements range from 617 sq ft to 23,925 sq ft; agricultural land ranges from small plots to 39 acres. - Most properties are in the Delhi‑NCR region and state capitals, many allotted in cooperative societies such as the Kendriya Vihar projects of the Central Government Employees Welfare Housing Organisation.

The 131 officials comprise nine scientists, five Indian Foreign Service officers and three IPS officers; the rest are IAS officers, mostly from the 1989‑1998 batches. Secretaries head departments and rank next only to the Cabinet Secretary; Chief Secretaries head state and Union Territory bureaucracies.

Under the conduct rules, every bureaucrat must update the immovable assets of themselves, spouses and dependents by January 31 each year, and the returns must be made public by March 31. This requirement began after RTI petitions, demands for a Lokpal and an anti‑corruption movement. Section 44 of the Lokpal Act mandated that all officials declare movable and immovable assets, similar to electoral candidates, MPs and ministers. The provision was amended in December 2016 to say that rules would be notified “in due course” to prescribe the form, manner and timelines for filing declarations of assets and liabilities by public servants; those rules are still awaited.

The Indian Express confirmed that the officers whose declarations were scrutinised held their positions as of October 1, 2026. The Cabinet Secretariat and the Department of Personnel and Training did not respond to emailed questions about whether any mechanism exists to verify the declarations, whether action was taken against officials who omitted required details in their 2025 filings, or what became of the rules promised under Section 44 of the Lokpal Act. Officials report additions to their movable assets to the government above a certain value, but these are not made public. Ministers’ details are on the PMO website, electoral candidates’ movable and immovable assets are in the public domain, and the assets and liabilities of Supreme Court judges were made public last year.