NGO serves notice on HC chief justice

A city-based NGO has served a legal notice on the Chief Justice and Registrar General of the Bombay High Court, challenging a circular issued by the HC denying public access to information on case adjournments under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

The National Campaign for People’s Right to Information had, through its members Shailesh Gandhi and Sanjiv Chimbulkar, filed an application on December 13, 2005, under the RTI Act, requesting information about adjournments in different cases in the last two years.

The HC advised them to get the information from the court’s website. But it was not available. The NGO wrote to the chief justice of the HC requesting the appointment of a Public Information Officer, but got no response.

It also came across a circular issued by the HC on February 15 stating that all applications for information under the RTI Act were to be kept pending as the Supreme Court and the HC were considering if the RTI Act was applicable to the judiciary. 

Stating that the circular violated fundamental rights and provisions of the RTI Act, the NGO asked the HC to withdraw it. Quoting an SC order, the notice stated, “The concept of an open government is the direct emanation from the right to know, which seems implicit in the right of free speech and expression guaranteed by the Constitution.”