The Supreme Court on Monday held that the Right to Information Act cannot be used by a litigant to question the basis or correctness of a judicial order.
A Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice B.S. Chauhan dismissed a special leave petition filed by a litigant Khanapuram Gandaiah against a judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court rejecting the plea for giving reasons for the judicial order under the RTI Act. The Bench said the RTI application amounted to contempt of court.
The CJI said: “RTI cannot be used against a judge to explain a judgment. A judge speaks through his judgments and he is not answerable to anyone as to why he wrote a judgment in a particular manner. As the judge has given his views in the judgment, he cannot give any other reason for his judgment. No party has a right to ask the judge concerned through RTI about the judgment.”
The petitioner, by an RTI application, asked a district judge to explain an order in a land dispute. He wanted to know why the judge did not consider his submissions and sought reasons and the basis for the order.” After his application was rejected, he moved the Andhra Pradesh High Court against that order.
The High Court rejected his petition and the present appeal is directed against this order.
