Senior bureaucrats’ 2026 property filings miss key details, review finds

A review of the 2026 asset disclosures of senior Indian bureaucrats shows large gaps in the information they provide about self‑acquired immovable property. The Indian Express examined the filings of 102 out of 131 Secretary‑level officials posted on official portals on March 31, 2026 and found 244 self‑acquired properties listed. Of these, 115 entries lack area or dimension data and another 115 have no current‑value figure. Only 129 properties include a present‑value estimate; the rest are marked "not known", "value not determined" or similar. The portfolio comprises 219 residential units, three commercial spaces and 22 parcels of agricultural land. Forty‑four officials or their spouses own three or more such properties; seven officials hold five each, 13 have four each and 24 own three each. The top holder, a Secretary‑rank IAS officer, declared eight properties – seven in Kerala and one in Meghalaya – while the second‑ranked officer listed six assets spread across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, including three in Mumbai and a DDA flat in New Delhi. Ten officials reported “nil” self‑acquired assets, among them a Jammu & Kashmir IAS officer who has done so every year since 2011. Residential sizes range from 617 to 23,925 sq ft and agricultural plots up to 39 acres, mostly located in Delhi‑NCR and state capitals and often allotted through the Kendriya Vihar projects of the Central Government Employees Welfare Housing Organisation. The officials reviewed include 95 central government Secretaries (including those attached to the President’s Secretariat, the Prime Minister’s Office, NITI Aayog and the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser), chief secretaries of 28 states and eight union territories, nine scientists, five IFS officers, three IPS officers and several IAS officers mainly from the 1989‑1998 batches. Asset declarations are mandatory each year under Section 44 of the Lokpal Act, with updates due by Jan 31 and public posting by Mar 31, a rule that began in 2011 after RTI petitions and anti‑corruption protests. The required rules for form and timeline, amended in Dec 2016, have still not been notified. The Cabinet Secretariat and the Department of Personnel and Training did not reply to queries about verification mechanisms or action on missing details in the 2025 filings. ## Context These disclosures are meant to keep senior public servants transparent and deter corruption, but the high number of missing area and value entries suggests the current system lacks effective verification, leaving the public without a full picture of officials’ wealth.