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Constitution bench to decide if SC is exempted from RTI Act
A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court will decide whether the apex court is liable to disclose information on judicial appointments under the Right to Information Act.
The bench will hear a case filed by its administrative wing through the Central Public Information Officer.
A three-judge bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi referred the question to the country’s top court, following a case filed by the CPIO of the Supreme Court against an earlier Delhi High Court ruling.
The Delhi High Court in 2014 upheld a similar order by the Central Information Commission and ruled that the Supreme Court is not exempt from disclosing information under the RTI . The high court thus allowed the public to seek information related to appointment of judges, and number of cases pending and disposed off in the apex court through RTI applications.
The Delhi High Court directed the Supreme Court registry to maintain all records, even judgments that had been reserved, to ensure that all information is available under RTI .
In 2011, the CIC had given a similar direction to the Supreme Court to maintain its records regarding all cases in such a way that information can be made available to RTI applicants. The Supreme Court has however, refused to give any directions with respect to divulging any details under the RTI during hearings of several public interest litigations.
The CIC gave its order in 2011 based on the apex court’s 2001 ruling in the case titled Anil Rai vs. State of Bihar. This judgement has been cited in most cases pleading for transparency in judiciary’s functioning on account of observations made on maintaining confidence of litigants. Several drafts of the Memorandum of Procedure prepared by the government for appointment of judges exclude appointments from the ambit of the RTI .
