COMPLAINT AGAINST HC JUDGES NOT RECORDED BY SC

COMPLAINT AGAINST HC JUDGES NOT RECORDED BY SC 17 Feb 2009, 1316 hrs IST, PTI Text: NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan may have recommended impeachment of a Calcutta High Court judge for misconduct but the Supreme Court seems to be on a sticky wicket when it comes to recording alleged lapses committed by other High Court judges. Infact, the apex court keeps no record of complaints received against judges and other employees of High Courts. This was found out by an RTI applicant who was informed by the Supreme Court that such complaints "are not held by or under the control of Supreme Court of India ", an argument upheld by the Central Information Commission. The RTI query comes in the backdrop of the CJI's recent move to recommend to the government that Calcutta HC judge Soumitra Sen should be impeached on charges of misconduct. The information watchdog has accepted the argument put forth by the Supreme Court, while replying to the RTI plea of Shruti Singh Chauhan of Delhi seeking a "List of all complaints received against judges or staff of different High Courts" between April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2007. The apex court in its reply said "...complaints against Judges of the High Courts or staff of different High Courts are not held by or under the control of the Supreme Court and hence your request cannot be acceded to." Chauhan had requested the public information officer of the apex court to forward the application to the appropriate authority in case the information was not held by the SC. Her first appeal against the decision also failed to evoke a positive response as the First Appellate Authority of the SC held that the application could not be forwarded to appropriate persons as there Information Officer did not have knowledge as to who held the information. Chauhan then approached the CIC to with her plea. During the arguments, her lawyer Prashant Bhushan cited a Full Court resolution adopted by the SC in respect of declaration of assets on May 7, 1997. Bhushan submitted that in case of any complaint made against a judge of the High Court, the CJI is invariably informed and it is he who would set up the probe committee, if the matter needed a "deeper probe." Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah held that argument presented by appellant appear to evolve from responses received and were not the part of the original plea. He asked Chauhan should file a fresh application if she wanted to know the details. "One public authority to which an application is addressed cannot be expected to research an issue if it is totally unconcerned with the subject of the information sought...The SC cannot therefore be faulted for mindless denial of information," he said.

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