The office of the Chief Justice of India has also come under the purview of the Right to Information Act (RTI). The Supreme Court said in a historic judgment on Wednesday that the office of the Chief Justice (CGI) is a public office, so it would come under the purview of the RTI.
A five-member bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi while delivering its verdict in the matter said that the CJI office is a public office and hence it would come under the purview of RTI. The bench said that the CGI office is a public office.
The bench, comprising CJI, Justice NV Ramana, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjeev Khanna gave their verdict on the plea in which the Supreme Court General Secretary challenged the Delhi High Court’s decision in January 2010.
What did the Delhi High Court say?
The Delhi High Court had said in its judgment that the CJI office is a public authority and should be brought under the Right to Information Act. The bench reserved the decision on this petition in April this year.
CJI Ranjan Gogoi had earlier said that an institution should not be harmed in the name of transparency. In November 2007, RTI activist Subhash Chandra Aggarwal had filed an RTI petition seeking information about the assets of the judges from the Supreme Court, for which he was denied.
Agarwal then approached the CIC and the CIC asked the Supreme Court to furnish information on the ground that the CJI office is also under the law. Subsequently, in January 2009, the order of the CIC was challenged in the Delhi High Court, however the CJI order was upheld there too.
Let us also inform you that there are total of 22 RTI exempted organizations which are given below:
- Border Security Force, Ministry of Home Affairs
- Central Reserve Police Force, Ministry of Home Affairs
- Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Ministry of Home Affairs
- Central Industrial Security Force, Ministry of Home Affairs
- National Security Guard, Ministry of Home Affairs
- Research & Analysis Wing of The Cabinet Secretariat
- Intelligence Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs
- Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Ministry of Finance
- Central Economic Intelligence Bureau, Ministry of Finance
- Directorate of Enforcement, Ministry of Finance
- Narcotics Control Bureau
- Aviation Research Centre
- Special Frontier Force
- Assam Rifles, Ministry of Home Affairs
- Sashastra Seema Bal, Ministry of Home Affairs
- Special Protection Group
- Defence Research and Development Organisation, Ministry of Defence
- Border Road Development Organisation
- Financial Intelligence Unit, India
- Directorate General Income Tax (Investigation)
- National Technical Research Organisation
- National Security Council Secretariat
Recently there was also some amendments made in the RTI act by the current BJP government under Prime Minister Narender Modi and there was a nationwide protest on the pretext of diluting the RTI act.