The chief justice said that the decision to make the apex court judges' assets public 'was taken in changed circumstances.'

But he laughed away a question as to whether the changed circumstances arose due to 'mounting public pressure or the changes in judicial conscience'.

On the prospect of various high courts following suit on the issue of making public the assets of their judges, the Balakrishnan said he would let the high courts taken their own decisions.

'Let them take their own decisions. I am told that the Delhi High Court is even meeting on the issue,' he pointed out.

'The high courts are not under the administrative control of the Supreme Court. Only the Supreme Court's judicial orders are binding upon them, not the administrative orders,' Balakrishnan explained.

However, he lamented that some of the high courts in the country are yet to follow the Supreme Court's example according to which its judges disclose their assets to the chief justice.

The high courts judges, too, were supposed to follow the apex court's example and their judges were supposed to declare their assets to their respective chief justices.

Balakrishnan parried a question on the absence of women judges in the Supreme Court, saying: 'The House of Lords had taken 100 years to find a woman judge.'