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ShareNew Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought to scrap the Delhi high court (HC) judgment calling the Chief Justice of India (CJI) a 'public authority' liable to disclose information about judges' assets under RTI.
Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan had recently said judges would disclose details of their their dependents' assets on the court's website. But they haven't. The apex court appealed before a division bench on Monday saying CJI is not a public authority and the information he gets is not open for public scrutiny.
However, the court's registrar general told RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, who initiated the proceedings, that all SC judges do disclose their asset details to CJI.
The 15-page appeal by the apex court's central public information officer (CPIO) seeks a stay on HC judge S Ravinder Bhat's September 2 judgment and its quashing saying, "the learned single judge erred in holding that all the information received by CJI falls within the purview of RTI Act".
Attorney general Goolam E Vahanvati, who 'settled' the appeal for CPIO, challenged Justice Bhat's judgment on 69 grounds. It pointed out that the 1997 judges resolution binding them to voluntarily disclose their assets to CJI, lacks legal sanction as it is "of only moral authority". It also says the CJI holds the information 'in fiduciary' capacity. So, it is confidential and cannot be disclosed under RTI.
The appeal filed by government counsel Anil Nanda says that 'the judiciary' has a plethora of information that cannot be made public. If medical records of judges were sought under RTI, it would have "disastrous consequences," it said. Following CJI's earlier declaration, many HC judges had made their wealth public.
