SC rakes path of Transparency Act to pacify RTI aspirant

The Supreme Court informed the Delhi High Court that it would provide the information sought by an RTI aspirant under the ‘Transparency Act’ and not under the ‘Right to Information Act’ (RTI Act) Attorney General Ghulam E Vahanvati, appearing for Supreme Court registry had apprised the High Court of the difficulties they faced in following the Central Information Commission (CIC) orders said though ‘we do not accept the ‘correctness’ CIC’s order, the information would be provided under the transparency Act.

The Supreme Court registry had last week filed a case in High Court challenging yet another CIC order to make public how the CJI dealt with a complaint against a sitting judge of Allahabad High Court.

After the Allahabad High Court dismissed his case, the litigant P K Dalmia sent several complaints to the CJI against the judge who decided the case against him. Then he approached the SC seeking to know the fate of his complaints and whether any action had been taken.

The Central Public Information Officer (CPI) of the Supreme Court refused to entertain Dalmia’s request on the ground that the information sought was not available with the registry and that the information was not held by or under the control of any public authority.

Dalmia then approached the CIC, which on July 16 held that the Chief Justice of India and Registry are one and the same institution and information available with the CJI would be deemed to be available with the Supreme Court of India.

Mr Vahanvati said the CIC had erred in passing such orders as the CJI was not a public authority under the definition of RTI Act and hence CJI could not be equated with the Supreme Court Registry.

The information sought for was not in the public domain and hence could not be accessed under the RTI Act, the court said in its petition before the Delhi High Court.

The Supreme Court, however, today agreed before the Delhi High Court to reveal information under the Transparency Act.

The High Court also clubbed together several other petitions and is examining the ambit of RTI act and soon will lay down its interpretations of the act.

The CIC on July 16 held that the office of CJI comes within the ambit of the Transparency Act and the apex court is under obligation to reveal the details of action taken on the complaint.