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February 2010

Declaration of Assets by SC Judges under RTI Act -Supreme Court should accept verdict

By Raman Jokhakar
Tarunkumar G. Singhal
Chartered Accountants
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Declaration of Assets by SC Judges under RTI Act -Supreme Court should accept
verdict


The ruling by a three-member bench of the Delhi High Court is
truly historic. It upheld an earlier judgment of a single judge of the same
court, dismissing an appeal by the Supreme Court (SC) that the office of the
Chief Justice of India (CJI) comes within the ambit of the Right to Information
(RTI) Act. Doing so, the High Court has sent a clear message: No one is above
the law.

This is the most sacred principle in any democratic society
and it is heartening that the High Court sees no case as an exception. The prime
minister and the president are already covered by the RTI Act; so why not the
apex court judges? The ruling comes in a dispute over whether assets declared by
SC judges to the CJI should be disclosed under the RTI Act.

“The higher the judge is placed in the judicial hierarchy,
the greater the standard of accountability and the stricter the scrutiny of
accountability of such mechanism,” said the bench. We could not agree more.

(Source: The Economic Times, dated 14.01.2010)

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