Office of the Chief Justice of India comes under ambit of RTI law- Case analysis - Synopsis
Lakshay Parmar 8 Jan 2020

The office of the Chief Justice of India comes under the ambit of RTI law- Case analysis

Central public information officer, Supreme Court of India v Subhash Chandra Agrawal.      ( CIVIL APPEAL NO. 10044 OF 2010)

 

The core issue in this case was the contention that whether the office of the Chief Justice of India comes under the ambit of Right to Information law.

 

Facts/Timeline- The initiation of this contention dates back to 2007 when an RTI activist SC Agrawal sought a copy of resolution which requires every judge to make declaration of all his assets. At that time, the Hon’ble Supreme Court's declaration of assets was made to India's Chief Justice (CJI) and was not even of a voluntary nature to disclose it to the public domain. The apex court refused to declare the assets.

 

Agrawal moved the CIC (Central information commission), which ruled that the Chief Justice of India's office fell within the scope of the RTI Act and that the Supreme Court could not deny the information sought under the RTI Act.

 

Agrawal ,in 2009 in the CIC, had sought information of correspondence between the Collegium and the government on the selection of three judges of the Supreme Court- HL Dattu, AK Ganguly, and RM Lodha who had replaced the AP Shah, AK Patnaik, and VK Gupta.

The CIC had instructed the office of Chief Justice to disclose the details of correspondence under the RTI Act. This was refused by the Supreme Court. 

 

In furtherance of this, the Supreme Court moved to Hon’ble Delhi High Court stating that the declaration of assets of CJI was “personal information” and does not comes under the scope of RTI act. This move was against the CIC ruling to declare the assets.

The single judge bench of the High court upheld the ruling of CIC by giving the reason that office of the CJI is a public authority and comes under the scope of RTI act.

In January 2010 Supreme Court moved the Delhi High Court with a bigger bench and the same was upheld by this bench also that CJI office comes under RTI act as a public authority

 

Now, by filing a petition against the Delhi High Court ruling, the Supreme Court approached itself. In the RTI case in 2010, a Supreme Court three-judge bench remained in the Delhi High Court judgment. Six years later, the RTI case was referred to a constitutional bench of five judges.

 

The Hon’ble Supreme Court observed

The Constitution Bench upheld the CIC's ruling and the Delhi High Court's two subsequent verdicts. With the office of the CJI coming under the RTI Act, the ordinary citizen can seek information about the judges ' assets as well as the reason for their appointment.

 

The ruling will lead to adding transparency and accountability to the work of the highest judiciary in the country . As a high constitutional position, this will improve its legitimacy and appeal as a human agency in a democratic system. "Disclosure is a facet of public interest," he said, "which should be the touchstone for all offices and organizations to operate. The bench of five judges unanimously held that the right to know under the RTI Act is not absolute and must be balanced against the judges ' right to privacy.

The bench of five judges unanimously held that the right to know under the RTI Act is not absolute and must be balanced against the judges ' right to privacy’. The challenge is to separate public, relevant and important information from private, irrelevant and insignificant issues, which will require high standards of judgment.

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