CJI’s Office Comes Under Ambit of RTI Act: SC

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the office of theChief Justice of India is a public authority under the Right to InformationAct.

Justice Sanjiv Khanna, while reading out the majority verdictsaid that public interest demands that transparency is maintained. "Transparencydoes not undermine judicial independence," the judge, who is also in the lineof succession to be the CJI stated.

The order was passed by a five-judge Constitution bench headedby Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. The other members of the bench are Justices NVRamana, DY Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

It was on 2010 that a five-judge constitution bench had on April 4 reserved its verdict on the appeals filed by the Supreme Court secretary-general and its central public information officer against the high court and the central information commission's (CIC's) orders.

The bench, headed by the chief justice, had wrapped up thehearing, saying nobody wants a "system of opaqueness", but thejudiciary cannot be destroyed in the name of transparency.

It said that nobody wants to remain in the state of darkness orkeep anybody in the state of darkness.  Thequestion is drawing a line. In the name of transparency, you can't destroy theinstitution, the bench said.

In a landmark verdict on January 10, 2010, the Delhi High Courthad held that the office of the chief justice of India comes within the ambitof the Right to Information (RTI) law, saying judicial independence was not ajudge's privilege, but a responsibility cast upon him.

The 88-page judgment was then seen as a personal setback to thethen CJI, K G Balakrishnan, who has been opposed to disclosure of informationrelating to judges under the RTI Act.