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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Information at the court's discretion -Aniket Aga

Information at the court's discretion -Aniket Aga

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published Published on Dec 13, 2017   modified Modified on Dec 13, 2017
-The Hindu

The judiciary’s brazen disregard for the RTI has now got a stamp of approval from a high court

A six-year-long farce concluded at the Delhi High Court on November 21, 2017, and the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 is the worse for it. At issue was the right of citizens to get information from the Supreme Court , and by implication, India’s higher judiciary, which has strongly resisted the RTI. The apex court summarily rejects RTI requests, and insists that applicants exclusively request information under its administrative rules (Supreme Court Rules) framed in 1966, and re-issued with minor changes in 2014. To see why the High Court’s judgment strengthens a culture of opacity in the higher judiciary, we need to delve into the Supreme Court’s engagement, or rather persistent non-engagement with the RTI.

The background

In April 2010, a former schoolteacher, R.S. Misra, filed an RTI request with the Supreme Court Registry. He had earlier sent two letters to different Justices, essentially demanding redress in a case before the apex court that he had already lost. In an evident attempt at using RTI to fight a judicial battle already lost, he sought “action taken” reports on his letters.

The Registry could have lawfully disposed of this RTI request by simply stating that no such information was available. Instead, the Registry rejected the application, and asked Mr. Misra to apply under the Supreme Court Rules. Mr. Misra challenged this response before the then Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi.

In May 2011, appearing before the Commission, the Additional Registrar of the Court, Smita Sharma objected only to the use of the RTI, and not to Mr. Misra’s request per se. She maintained that the Supreme Court Rules alone governed access to the information he had sought. Claiming that the Rules were consistent with the RTI, she asked Mr. Gandhi to reinstate the primacy of Supreme Court Rules over the RTI, in line with previous Central Information Commission (CIC) rulings.

However, as Mr. Gandhi noted in his decision, the Supreme Court Rules undermined the RTI in four key ways. Unlike the RTI Act, the Rules do not provide for: a time frame for furnishing information; an appeal mechanism, and penalties for delays or wrongful refusal of information. Finally, the Rules also make disclosures to citizens contingent upon “good cause shown”. In sum, the Rules allowed the Registry to provide information at its unquestionable discretion, violating the text and spirit of the RTI. Consequently, Mr. Gandhi held that the Supreme Court Rules are inconsistent with the RTI Act, and that the Registry must respond to applications within the RTI framework alone.

Please click here to read more.

The Hindu, 13 December, 2017, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/information-at-the-courts-discretion/article21537137.ece?homepage=true


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