Does The Office Of CJI Come Under RTI ? SC To Pronounce Judgment Tomorrow

The Supreme Court will pronounce the judgment tomorrow in its own appeal against a Delhi High Court judgment that had held that the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India are "public authorities" under the Right to Information Act.

The Constitution bench comprising of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices NV Ramana, DY Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna had heard the appeal.

Three Judge bench of Delhi High Court comprising the then Chief Justice A P Shah, Justice Vikramjeet Sen and Justice S Muralidhar had upheld the single bench judgment that Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India have statutory duty to furnish information sought by citizens regarding the functioning and administration of the Supreme Court. The single bench had dismissed the challenge against the order of Central Information Commission whereby it had directed the Supreme Court CPIO to provide the information requested by Subhash Chandra Agarwal for supply of information concerning declaration of personal assets by the Judges of the Supreme Court.

These appeals, though filed in the year 2010, were referred to the Constitution bench only in August 2016 by a three judge bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi. The bench also referred the following questions formulated by a bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice SS Nijjar along with the appeals.

• Whether the concept of independence of judiciary requires and demands the prohibition of furnishing of the information sought? Whether the information sought for amounts to interference in the functioning of the judiciary?
• Whether the information sought for cannot be furnished to avoid any erosion in the credibility of the decisions and to ensure a free and frank expression of honest opinion by all the constitutional functionaries, which is essential for effective consultation and for taking the right decision?
• Whether the information sought for is exempt under Section 8(i)(j) of the Right to Information Act?