Office of the CJI is a ‘public authority’ under the RTI Act 14/11/2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags: , ,

Right to Information Act

 

For: Mains

Topics covered:

  • Office of the CJI is a ‘public authority’ under the RTI Act
  • About Chief Justice of India
  • About the Right to Information Act
  • What is Judicial Independence?

 

News Flash

The Supreme Court in its landmark judgement has held that the office of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is a public authority under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

  • The apex court also said that judicial independence has to be kept in mind while disclosing information in public interest.
  • The order was passed by a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. Other members of the bench are Justices NV Ramana, DY Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.
  • The Bench, however, agreed, that the right to know under RTI was not absolute. The right to know of a citizen ought to be balanced with the right to privacy of individual judges
  • Personal information of judges should only be divulged under RTI if such disclosure served the larger public interest.
  • The Bench also upheld the Delhi High Court judgment of 2010 that the CJI does not hold information on the personal assets of fellow judges in a fiduciary capacity.

 

Background – Delhi HC order

In a verdict on 10 January 2010, the Delhi High Court had held that the office of the CJI comes within the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) law, saying judicial independence was not a judge’s privilege, but a responsibility cast upon him.

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

 

What do you mean by judicial independence?

It is the concept that the judiciary should be independent from the other branches of government. Courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government or from private or partisan interests. Judicial independence is important to the idea of separation of powers.

 

Chief Justice of India

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) is the head of the judiciary of India and the Supreme Court of India.
The CJI also heads their administrative functions. As head of the supreme court, the chief justice is responsible for the allocation of cases and appointment of constitutional benches which deal with important matters of law.
In accordance with Article 145 of the Constitution of India and the Supreme Court Rules of Procedure of 1966, the Chief Justice allocates all work to the other judges.

Right to Information Act

RTI is act of the Parliament of India to provide for setting out the practical regime of the right to information for citizens and replaces the erstwhile Freedom of information Act, 2002.
Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen of India may request information from a “public authority” (a body of Government or “instrumentality of State”) which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days.

 

Source: India Today

 

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