Office of CJI Does Fall Under the Banner of RTI, SC Rules

A five-judge bench, headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi, pronounced that the position of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) cannot be renounced from under the realm of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. This ruling comes as an upholding of the 2010 SC verdict on the appeal made by RTI activist Subhash Agrawal.

Crux of the Matter

1. The five-judge bench included CJI Ranjan Gogoi, and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Deepak Gupta, NV Ramana, and DY Chandrachud.

2. Subhash Agrawal, an RTI activist, had first filed a case in 2007 in the SC beseeching information on assets declared by CJIs. He also later demanded that the information pertaining to the appointment of the CJIs be made public.

3. The bench dismissed the SC’s plea on the grounds that bringing CJI’s office under the realms of RTI would not be an obstacle for the independence of the judiciary.

4. “This is not the independence from accountability. Independence of Judiciary means it has to be independent from the executive and not independent from common public. People are entitled to know as to what public authorities are doing,” argued the lawyer of Subash, Prashant Bhushan, at the reluctance of the SC to render RTI Act applicable for the office of the CJI.

5. “There should be a balance between the right to privacy and right to information and they have to be treated as co-equals and there was a need for a balancing formula.” Justice N V Ramana showed concern regarding the independence of the Judiciary.

Curiopedia

Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India to provide for setting out the practical regime of the right to information for citizens. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen of India may request information from a “public authority” which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Right to Information Act 2019 passed on July 25 2019 modified the terms and conditions of service of the CIC and Information Commissioners at the centre and in states. It had been criticized as watering down the independence of the information commissions. Read More

Curated Coverage

1. News 18 – CJI’s Office to Come Under RTI Ambit, Rules SC, Says Openness Doesn’t Undermine Judicial Independence

2. India Today – CJI under RTI Act: A rare case where Supreme Court ruled against itself

3. The Indian Express – Timeline of events in office of Chief Justice of India falling under RTI Act case

#India #RTI #SC