In a dramatic move, judges of the Supreme Court of India unanimously decided to make public their wealth and assets. The move came after the judges met for over two hours over the issue here on Wednesday.

According to reports, the judges would publish all the details of the assets on the Supreme Court website shortly.

Earlier, Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan came under renewed pressure on Tuesday from two of his predecessors who openly asked the CJI to end his opposition on revealing wealth details of judges. This came even as more high court judges hinted they were willing to declare their assets.

Justice Balakrishnan had a bit of an embarrassment when a former CJI J S Verma, the judge who had initiated the process for judges' assets declaration by getting a resolution approved in a full court meeting attended by 22 Supreme Court judges in May 1997, openly wondered why the CJI was resisting the move to declare his assets and that of fellow judges.

Justice Balakrishnan subsequently said that a consensus has to be reached in the Supreme Court on the issue. It was this consensus that was reached late Wednesday evening.

Earlier, in a major embarrassment to the Manmohan Singh government, Rajya Sabha members, including some from the Congress, forced deferring introduction of a controversial bill that protects judges from making public their assets.

Members cutting across party lines strongly opposed Clause VI of the Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Bill, 2009, according to which high court and Supreme Court judges would have to declare their assets without having to make them public.

Subsequently, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily had no choice but to announce that the bill's introduction was being deferred.