Asset declarations by Supreme Court judges is within purview of RTI

Upholding the Central Information Commission (CIC) order that office of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is well within the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Delhi High Court Wednesday ruled that judges should declare their assets. In a historical judgement, Justice S. Ravindra Bhat said judges are accountable but they are also subject to some constraints. He said, “A judge is not unaccountable as is sometimes wrongly understood and is subject to several constraints. The judicial branch lacks either the ’sword or the purse’ controlled by the other two branches.”

The judge also said that the office of Chief Justice of India is a public authority and it is well within the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The court was hearing a appeal by the apex court’s Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO) against the CIC’s order that the office of the Chief Justice of India is within the purview of RTI Act.

In a formal interaction with the reporters last Friday, Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan had asserted that his office is out of the purview of the RTI Act.

The high court also directed the CPIO of the Supreme Court to release the information sought by the petitioner within four weeks. The court, however, refused to comment on the recent development of declaration of assets by judges of various state high courts.

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