Can RTI help you know judges’ assets?

There seems to be a prolonged litigation on the people’s right to know about the assets of Supreme Court (SC) and high court judges under the Right to Information Act.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) last month directed the SC’s “competent authority”, the chief justice, to provide information about judges assets to an applicant. CJI KG Balakrishnan said information about judges’ assets is personally kept with the chief justice of India and (high court) chief justices.

The public will have a right to know these details if there is a legislative mandate. But at present there is no such legislation.

He also said that information relating to appointments or declaration of assets is not shared with the court registry, to maintain confidentiality. Thus, the CJI indicated, the CIC order would be challenged.

In its order, the CIC held that “The institution and its head cannot be two distinct public authorities. They are one and the same. Information, therefore, available with the CJI must be deemed to be available with the SC. The registrar, who is only a part of the SC, cannot be categorised as a public authority independent [of] and distinct from the SC itself.

A parliamentary standing committee on personnel, law and justice headed by EM Sudarsana Natchiappanan says, “Except the judicial decision making, all other activities of administration and the persons included in it (judiciary) are subject to RTI Act.” A judges’ resolution in 1997 mandates judges to file declaration of their assets to CJI.

Former CJI JS Verma says the SC’s registry is very much a part of CJI’s office. “This is clear from Article 146, which places the SC registry under the responsibility of CJI.” He also differs from Balakrishnan’s claim that CJI is beyond the RTI’s reach. “Every authority is subject to accountability in some form or the other. And all that RTI does is to operationalise a fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19(1) (a)”.