[Updated]: RTI Applicable To Office Of CJI; SC Upholds Delhi HC Judgment

[Updated with judgment]In a historic judgment, the Supreme Court on Wednesday held that the office of Chief Justice of India is a public authority under the Right to Information Act. The Constitution Bench upheld the the 2010 judgment of Delhi HC which had held that RTI Act was applicable to CJI's office."Transparency does not undermine judicial independence. Judicial independence and accountability go hand in hand. Disclosure is a facet of public interest", said Justice Sanjiv Khanna who wrote the majority opinion on behalf of the bench. Justices Ramana and Chandrachud wrote separate but concurring judgments.The Court has however underlined the importance of maintaining confidentiality in some aspects of judicial administration, and has qualified the right to information on the grounds of public interest."Confidentiality may have some bearing and importance in ensuring honest and fair appraisals, though it could work the other way around also and, therefore, what should be disclosed would depend on authentic enquiry relating to the public interest, that is, whether the right to access and the right to know outweighs the possible public interest in protecting privacy or outweighs the harm and injury to third parties when the information relates to such third parties or the information is confidential in nature", stated the Court.(through J Khanna's judgment)As to what may constitute public interest, the Court mentioned certain parameters which could be applied to test. In the words of Justice Khanna :"The public interest test in the context of the RTI Act would mean reflecting upon the object and purpose behind the right to information, the right to privacy and consequences of invasion, and breach of confidentiality and possible harm and injury that would be caused to the third party, with reference to a particular information and the person"."The delicate balance requires identification of public interest behind each exemption and then cumulatively weighing the public interest in accepting or maintaining the exemption(s) to deny information in a particular case against the public interest in disclosure in that particular case. Further, under Section 11(1), reference is made to the 'possible' harm and injury to the third party which will also have to be factored in when determining disclosure of confidential information relating to the third parties"Referring to Section 6(2) of the RTI Act, the judgment stated that the motive of the seeker of information is not a relevant consideration at all while considering the application.However, 'motive' and 'purpose' are relevant considerations while applying the 'public interest test' in case of qualified exemptions governed by the public interest test.The RTI Act has given the Public Information Officer vast discretion in taking a call on these matters.The independence of judiciary is one of the factors to be taken into account in weighing and applying the public interest test."Thus, when the public interest demands the disclosure of information, judicial independence has to be kept in mind while deciding the question of exercise of discretion. However, we should not be understood to mean that the independence of the judiciary can be achieved only by denial of access to information. Independence in a given case may well demand openness and transparency by furnishing the information"In the context of information relating to judicial appointments, Justice Khanna's judgment drew a distinction between "input" and "output". "Output" is the final outcome of the collegium resolution, while "input" are the observations, indicative reasons, inputs and data which the collegium had examined. "The rigour of public interest in divulging the input details, data and particulars of the candidate would be different from that of divulging and furnishing details of the output, tis the decision.In the former, public interest test would have to be applied keeping in mind the fiduciary relationship (if it arises), and also the invasion of the right to privacy and breach of the duty of confidentiality owed to the candidate or the information provider, resulting from the furnishing of such details and particulars".As regards the direction of the Delhi HC regarding disclosure of information relating to collegium deliberations, the SC directed the CPIO to re-examine the matter after following the procedure under Section 11(1) of the RTI Act as the information related to third parties.With respect to the information relating to assets of judges, the Court held that such disclosure would not, in any way, impinge upon the personal information and right to privacy of the judges. The fiduciary relationship rule in terms of clause (e) to Section 8(1) of the RTI Act is also inapplicable to this information.The Court asked the information commissioner to apply test of proportionality while entertaining applications seeking information from CJI's office, keeping in mind right to privacy and...

[Updated]: RTI Applicable To Office Of CJI; SC Upholds Delhi HC Judgment

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Transparency does not undermine judicial independence.Judicial independence and accountability go hand in hand.

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