Supreme Court told the Delhi High Court that it was ready to reveal information under the Right to Information Act (RTI) on a complaint against an Allahabad High Court judge.
Attorney General Ghulam E. Vahanvati, appearing for the Supreme Court, made the submission before the high court that although he does not accept the correctness of the Central Information Commission judgement in this regard, the information would be provided under the RTI.
The CIC had July 16 held that the office of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) comes within the purview of the transparency law and the apex court is under obligation to reveal the details of action taken on the complaint.
Vahanvati also informed the high court that the July 16 order was based on an earlier CIC judgement which has been challenged in the high court and the verdict is reserved. The court did not take any action till now on the complaint against the sitting Allahabad High Court judge, he added.
The apex court had during earlier hearings before CIC maintained that the information relating to a high court judge was with the Chief Justice of India and his office does not come under the abmit of the RTI.
The CIC had passed the order on a plea of P.K. Dalmia, who sought to know the fate of his complaint, filed with the CJI, of alleged malpractices by the designated company judge in a liquidation case of the Uttar Pradesh State Cement Corporation Limited.
Dalmia then filed an RTI application to know the fate of his complaint, which the Supreme Court registry rejected. It said that a complaint against a high court or a Supreme Court judge does not come under the jurisdiction of the RTI.
