The Delhi High Court Tuesday upheld its single bench order that the office of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) comes within the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act and details of judges assets should be revealed under that. A bench comprising Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justices S. Muralidhar and Vikramjeet Sen said, "Higher the judiciary, higher is the accountability towards the public at large". Emphasising the importance of...

Are income-tax returns filed by individual citizens open to public scrutiny under the Right to Information? Yes, says the Central Information Commission. In a controversial December 14 ruling with far-reaching implications, the CIC held that individual assessees could not invoke privacy concerns to prevent an unrelated “third party” from inspecting returns filed with the Income-Tax Department. Sources in the Commission said the ruling must be seen as a trendsetter that could...

After politicians and judges of Supreme Court, now the assets of babus have been prised open to public scrutiny. In a landmark order, the Central Information Commission has said that disclosure of information such as assets of a public servant, routinely collected by the public authority, should be made available to the public under the Right to Information Act. Passing the order in a case involving an officer with the...

Ironically, the Right to Information (RTI) Act is being used to unseat Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Wajahat Habibullah himself.    Using documents got using the Act, Mumbai-based RTI activist Girish Mittal on Monday served a legal notice on the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Ministry of Personnel & Grievances (DoPT) saying that Habibullah, whose resignation is still hanging fire, is being accorded preferential treatment and that he should be relieved...

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...