The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to challenge the Delhi High Court verdict which brought the Chief Justice of India’s office within the ambit of RTI Act.
The legal battle for getting information from the Supreme Court, which had started in November 2007, is set to prolong as the Supreme Court registry decided to challenge the High Court verdict before it.
As soon as the a full bench of High Court headed by Chief Justice A. P. Shah pronounced the verdict, the counsel appearing for the Supreme Court sought its certificate to file the appeal which was granted by the Court.
Advocate Atul Nanda, appearing for the Supreme Court, contended that the issue is of national importance and so it has to be decided by the Supreme Court.
The Court, after hearing his arguments, allowed him to move to Supreme Court.
Chief Justice of India K. G. Balakrishnan has consistently been maintaining that his office does not come under the transparency law and hence cannot part with information like disclosure of judges’ assets under it.
Holding that CJI is a public authority under the Act, the High Court bench said judges of the superior courts should make public their assets as they are not “less accountable” than the judicial officers of the lower courts who are bound by service rules to declare assets.
