New Delhi: In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court on Wednesday announced that office of the Chief Justice of India (CJ) will come under the Right to Information Act (RTI).
The apex court held that office of the CJI is a public authority under the transparency law, the Right to Information Act.
The judgment was given by a five-judge Constitution bench of the apex court headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
The bench comprising Justices NV Ramana, DY Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna had reserved its order in the matter on April 4.
“The Office of Chief Justice of India is a public authority under RTI. It maintained that transparency and accountability must go hand-in-hand”, the SC said.
The apex court, however, said that confidentiality and right to privacy have to be maintained and added that RTI can’t be used for as a tool of surveillance.
It also said only names of judges recommended by the collegium can be disclosed, not the reasons.
Notably, the petition in the matter was filed by Supreme Court secretary-general against the Delhi High Court’s order holding that the CJI’s office comes under the RTI purview.