Judges' assets: HC comes to SC's rescue

NEW DELHI: Faced with an unprecedented situation of the Supreme Court petitioning it against a ruling, the Delhi High Court on Monday stayed an order passed by the Central Information Commission asking the Chief Justice of India to disclose if judges of the apex court have declared their assets to him. Acting on a petition filed by the CPIO of Supreme Court challenging the January 6 order passed by the CIC, Justice S Ravindra Bhat also appointed noted jurist Fali S Nariman as the amicus curiae (friend of court) to assist the court and fixed February 12 as the next date of hearing in the case. HC also issued notice to CIC and RTI applicant Subhash Chandra Aggarwal. In the petition, SC said that information relating to declaration of assets by the apex court judges to the CJI was not a mandatory exercise under the law and it can't be ordered to disclose it. Senior counsel K K Nigam and standing counsel for CIC, O P Saxena accepted the notice on behalf of CIC. The petition dubbed as ‘informal' the judges conference at which a resolution was passed on May 7, 1997 requiring every judge to declare to the CJI assets including properties or any other investment in the name of their spouse and any person dependent on them. It maintained the resolution wasn't a law and CJI being a constitutional authority wasn't bound by the RTI Act. "Neither is the office of CJI a public authority nor does the information relating to judges' assets come in the public domain," SC has said. On January 6, the CIC had asked the Supreme Court's registrar to provide information to Aggarwal, within 10 days, whether the judges of the apex court declare their assets to the CJI. Aggarwal appeared in court through his lawyer Prashant Bhushan. Meanwhile, the apex court supplied a copy of May 1997 resolution to the CIC and the registry said there is nothing under the Constitution or any law which required judges to declare their assets to CJI. Under RTI Act, Aggarwal sought to know if the SC judgesdeclare their assets to CJI.

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