Central Information Commissioner: Cji Comes Under Rti Act

Central Information Commissioner: CJI comes under RTI Act 1/7/2009 The Central Information Commissioner (CIC) has ruled that the Supreme Court is obliged to give information to an appellant who wanted to know whether the judges of the Supreme Court are furnishing the details of their assets or not. Allowing the petition of one S C Agrawal, three member bench of CIC comprising Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, Information Commissioners. A N Tiwari and Prof M M Ansari, directed the Supreme Court’s information officer to provide information asked by Mr Agrawal in his RTI application whether the judges have filed the details of their assets or not. ‘Since no information about the details of assets has been sought, there is no need to furnish that,’ the CIC said. The CIC directed the Supreme Court to furnish the information within ten days. Mr Agarwal had filed an application under the Act whether the judges under their own resolution were filing the details of their assets to the Chief Justice of India. The resolution passed by the Supreme Court judges is an in-house mechanism and the declaration by judges about their assets is voluntary. The resolution itself describes submissions of such declarations as ‘confidential.’ It was submitted by the Counsel of the Apex Court that disclosures of these declarations would be breach of fiduciary relationship and the declarations are submitted to the Chief Justice of India in his personal capacity and not in his official capacity and the disclosure of declarations would be contrary to the provisions of section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act. The CIC ruled that the Supreme Court is an institution created by the Constitution and, therefore, is a public authority within the meaning of section 2(h) of the Act. Ruling out the Supreme Court’s claim that the CJI is exempt from the purview of the RTI, the CIC held that the status and position of the CJI is unique under the Act and is appointed under section 2(e) of the Act, which says that all those including the President, speakers of both Houses of Parliament, Chief Justice of India, Chief Justices of High Courts and an administrator appointed under article 239 of Constitution are all covered under the Act. UNI

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