Login With Google
‘Office of Chief Justice of India comes under RTI Act’
Why in news?
- The office of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is a ‘public authority’ under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, a five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi declared on 13th Nov
More in news
- Main judgment of the Constitution Bench authored by Justice Sanjiv Khanna said:
(1) The Supreme Court is a “public authority” and
(2) The office of the CJI is part and parcel of the institution.
(3) Hence, if the Supreme Court is a public authority, so is the office of the CJI.
(4) Transparency and accountability should go hand-in-hand. Increased transparency under RTI was no threat to judicial independence.
- Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, in his separate and concurring opinion, observed that
(1) Judicial independence is not secured by the secrecy of cloistered halls.
- Justice N.V. Ramana, in his opinion, struck a cautionary note, saying
(1) Judicial independence was the basis of the trust public reposes in the judiciary.
(2) Only the right dose of transparency should be calibrated with judicial independence.
- Not an absolute right
(1) The Bench, agreed, in one voice, that the right to know under RTI was not absolute.
(2) The right to know of a citizen ought to be balanced with the right to privacy of individual judges.
(3) “Right to information should not be allowed to be used as a tool of surveillance,” Justice Ramana wrote.
(4) Hence, on this aspect, Justice Khanna held that personal information of judges should only be divulged under RTI if such disclosure served the larger public interest.
- Justice Ramana listed certain “nonexhaustive factors” for the PIO to consider while deciding whether the information sought was private.
(1) These factors include various criteria from the nature of the information sought to its impact on the private life of the judge.
Sources
The Hindu