While discussing the question of including the higher judiciary under the proposed anti-corruption Lokpal Bill, government representatives on the joint draft committee on Saturday pointed out that two former Chief Justices, M.N. Venkatachaliah and J.S. Verma, had opined in a public consultation that the higher judiciary should be kept out of the ambit of the bill. Members of the civil society cited instances where applications to look into charges of corruption...

Soon, RTI won’t get info out of the CBI Mirror Turns Opaque     * CBI proposes an exemption from giving information under RTI     * Law ministry gives it green signal based on Gopal Subramanium’s opinion     * All it requires is a department of personnel and training (DoPT) notification to get an exemption     * Activists fear agencies will use this to deny citizens information *** Will the CBI be allowed not to divulge details...

The CBI has admitted that it received two complaints against former CJI K G Balakrishnan but refused to give details under RTI. CBI's Chennai bureau dismissed one complaint citing "vague and unverifiable" allegations and forwarded the second complaint to the New Delhi office for further probe. CBI refused to give details about the complaints in response to an RTI query saying that the information related to a third person. Balakrishnan is...

In a major shift from its earlier position, the law ministry has decided to lift the veil of secrecy on complaints received against judges of the Supreme Court and high courts if a complainant has no objection making his or her name public. The ministry’s decision to provide complaints of corruption and misconduct against the members of higher judiciary under the Right to Information (RTI) Act follows a direction from...

A consultation here on Sunday threw up differences on bringing the Prime Minister under the ambit of the Lokpal Bill, being formulated by a 10-member joint drafting committee that includes five members from civil society. The round table, dominated by eminent judges and lawyers, however, excused higher judiciary from the ambit of the proposed Bill and favoured a “separate mechanism” to make High Court and Supreme Court judges accountable for misconduct. “When...