New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the directions passed against it by the Central Information Commission (CIC) to disclose informations on judges appointment to the apex court by superseding seniors.
The apex court also put on hold the operation of the
CIC order directing it to divulge communication between Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan and Justice R Raghupathy of Madras High Court on alleged interference by a Union minister in a sub-judice matter.
The appeal filed by the apex court registry was
mentioned by Attorney General G E Vahanvati before a Bench
comprising justices B Sudershan Reddy and Deepak Verma which
issued notice to the RTI applicant on whose plea the CIC has
passed the orders.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the RTI
applicant assailed the decision of the apex court for directly
moving before itself by sidelining the Delhi High Court and
said the Supreme Court, which favoured the transparency law
for others, is stepping back when it comes to itself sending a
wrong impression.
At this, the Bench said it was not a question of stepping back and when the other side says that some important question of law needs to be examined then the appeal has to be heard.
"You can take it from us that the issues raised in the petition will be considered objectively," the Bench said.
When the Attorney General along with Advocate Devadatt Kamat sought stay on the CIC`s direction saying several important question of law arise in the matter which required urgent hearing, Bhushan said all major issues relating to the case was decided by the apex court in another matter.
The Bench granted three weeks to the RTI applicant to respond to the appeal and another two weeks to the registry for filing the rejoinder.
The CIC, in a series of orders, has held that office of the CJI comes within the purview of the RTI Act and information held by the CJI should be revealed.
However, Balakrishnan has consistently been maintaining that his office does not come under the ambit of RTI Act.
The Supreme Court had on December 1 moved before itself a petition challenging the order of CIC which had directed it to divulge information relating to appointment of judges to the apex court and communication between Chief Justice of India and Justice Raghupathy.
The Registry has assailed the CIC`s order contending that the material (information) held by the CJI was kept under fiduciary relationship and should be exempted from being made public under Section 8(1)e of the transparency law.
Interestingly, deviating from the normal practice which was adopted by it in an earlier case on the assets declaration issue, the apex court this time sidelined the Delhi High Court where appeals against the CIC`s order were filed.
The same legal issue on whether CJI`s office comes within the ambit of RTI or not is pending before a full bench of the Delhi High Court after a single judge had rejected the apex court`s plea that all the information with CJI cannot be revealed under RTI.
The CIC on November 25 had said appointment of judges is a "public activity" which cannot be withheld from disclosure and asked the apex court registry to make public the records relating to appointment of three apex court judges who superseded their seniors.
The CIC had passed the order on a plea of RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal seeking complete correspondence among authorities concerned relating to appointment of justices H L Dattu, A K Ganguly and R M Lodha superseding seniority of justices A P Shah, A K Patnaik and V K Gupta.
This was allegedly objected to by the Prime Minister`s Office, according to the petition.
The CIC in a separate order had directed the apex court to reveal the name of the Union minister, who had allegedly approached a judge of the Madras High Court to influence a decision in a case of his, and the complete correspondence with Chief Justice of India in the matter.
Justice Raghupathy had alleged in an open court a few months ago that the Union minister, through his lawyer, spoke to him on telephone seeking favours in a case being probed by CBI.
- PTI
