Hearing own case,SC stays CIC order

Instead of complying with the order,the Supreme Court Registry bypassed all judicial conventions by ignoring the next appellate court in line,the Delhi High Court,to directly appeal to itself.

The Bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and Deepak Verma,who heard the urgent mention of the case by Attorney General G E Vahanvati,on Friday also stayed a CIC order to reveal the official correspondence between Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan and Justice R Raghupathy of Madras High Court on an alleged interference by a Union minister in a pending case.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan,appearing for RTI applicant S C Agarwal,submitted in court that it would definitely be in the best interest of the judiciary to decide on the appeal without delay. He noted that the Registry had already sent a wrong signal by moving the Supreme Court instead of the High Court first. To this the Bench replied that the court would not lose its objectivity while coming to a final decision in the case.

To the apex courts submission that information on the appointment of the judges was held by the Chief Justice of India in a fiduciary capacity and was thus exempted from disclosure,Bhushan countered that information on the appointment of the judges had nothing personal in nature and were part of the official correspondence. The CIC has already given the Supreme Court to sever the personal data and part only with what is official, Bhushan submitted.

One of the substantial questions of law raised by the apex court is whether the principles of judiciary demand that the functioning of the judiciary should not be interfered with by strangers and busibodies. The Bench directed Agarwal to file his response to the apex court appeal in three weeks.