SC appeals to itself on RTI verdict

The Supreme Court today turned to itself once again by filing an appeal against a January 12 Delhi High Court verdict that had clarified that the Right to Information (RTI) Act covered the office of the Chief Justice of India.

Citing as many as 39 reasons for its contention that the RTI law did not cover the office of the CJI, the appeal filed by the apex court’s secretary-general said that the high court had failed to deal with its submission that only information that was in ‘public domain’ could be sought under the 2005 law.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) had directed the Supreme Court on January 6, 2009 to provide information to an RTI applicant who wanted to know whether judges of the higher judiciary were disclosing their assets to the CJI or the respective HC CJs. The SC challenged the CIC order in the Delhi HC, but lost both the appeals and the review plea. Earlier, the SC had filed a petition before itself challenging another CIC order for disclosure of details relating to bypassing of seniority while elevating Judges to the apex court. On February 8 this year, a Bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and SS Nijjar issued notice to all the HCs seeking their response to the SC plea that matters pertaining to appointment of judges could not be disclosed. In the present appeal, the apex court contended that the 1997 SC Resolution and the 1999 Judicial Conference Resolution on judicial values had only talked about “voluntary declaration” of assets by Judges and as such these were not in public domain. According to the appeal, the HC “has failed to appreciate the context in which the submission about the non-binding nature of the resolution needs to be noted.”

While interpreting the right to information under the act with reference to the judiciary, the HC ought to have appreciated the right under Section 2(j) in a manner “which is in furtherance of the basic structure of the Constitution, namely independence of judiciary.”