The Secretary-General of the Supreme Court has challenged the Delhi High Court judgment that the office of the Chief Justice of India is a “public authority” that comes within the ambit of the Right to Information Act and is bound to provide information about declaration of asset details by Supreme Court Judges. The appeal, filed on Monday by advocate Devadatt Kamat, said the impugned judgment “has far-reaching consequences for the institutional...

The Supreme Court has refused to answer several queries filed under the right to information law on whether judges of the top court conversant with the affairs of Karnataka High Court had been consulted by the Chief Justice of India before a decision was taken to elevate Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran to the apex court. The collegium, headed by the Chief Justice of India, had recommended Dinakaran’s name to the...

SC lays down eight rules to streamline the PIL movement and wants the courts to follow them What the development of public interest litigation (PIL) and right to information has done to the justice delivery system can be compared, with a little exaggeration, to the growth of mobile telephony and Internet in communications. The only fear is that they may act like unruly horses at times. Public interest petitions have been filed...

On January 2, 2010, three masked men barged into Pinki’s home in Tapodana village, Ranchi district and killed her parents on the charges of practicing witchcraft. Pinki, 14, and her younger brother are now in hiding because she too has been named as a dayan or witch. Sushila Devi, 45, tries to hide the injury on her head with her sari pallu as she describes how she and four other...

All the judges of the Delhi High Court led by Chief Justice A. P. Shah on Friday made their assets and investments public by uploading the details on the Court’s website. Before these details were uploaded, each judge submitted the details of his or her assets to the Chief Justice. The asset details include properties in the judge’s name or in the name of his/her spouse or his/her dependant family members. A...