Apex court may challenge high court ruling on judges' assets
Sidharth
(Source: IANS) 02 Sep 2009
New Delhi: The Supreme Court may challenge a ruling by the Delhi High
Court on Wednesday that the office of the Chief Justice of India (CJI)
is a public authority to assess judges' assets and falls under the
purview of the Right to Information Act, top apex court officials
said.
"We have just received the copy of the high court judgment. We are
examining it at present. It will take a few days before we can say
what to do with it," Supreme Court Secretary General M.P. Bhadran
told.
Though Bhadran refused to categorically say what would be the apex
court registry's future action, other senior court officials said the
Supreme Court "may have to sit in judgment over the high court
ruling."
The apex court's officials say the issue that needs to be settled is
whether the office of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) fell in the
purview of the Right to Information Act (RTI). Chief Justice K.G.
Balakrishnan is opposed to the view.
"In the name the transparency, the office of the chief justice could
not be stripped naked," an official said.
A Delhi High Court bench Wednesday ruled: "The CJI is a public
authority under the RTI Act. The CJI holds the information pertaining
to asset declarations in his capacity as (the) Chief Justice."
The high court ruling came on an appeal by the apex court's registry
against the Central Information Commission's order that the CJI was a
public authority.
In a formal interaction with the reporters last Friday, Chief Justice
Balakrishnan had asserted that his office is out of the purview of the
RTI Act.
"The office of the chief justice is privy to so much of information
like privileged communication between various constitutional
authorities, complaints against judges etc. How can all this
information be disclosed (under RTI Act)?" the chief justice had said.
Apex court officials said they had basically challenged that aspect of
the central information commission which says "whatever information is
with the chief justice has to be with the registrar."
The officials also pointed out that the Supreme Court judges' latest
resolution to make public their assets lacked the force of legal
mandate and so it was not even binding on the judges.