The Central Information Commission (CIC) has ruled that the Supreme Court and high courts are “public authorities” that come under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, and asked the apex court to disclose within 10 days if its judges have ever declared their assets.

“The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the Supreme Court is directed to provide information as to whether declaration of assets, etc., has been filed by the Honourable Judges of the Supreme Court or not within ten working days from the date of receipt of this decision notice,” a full bench of the CIC comprising Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah and Information Commissioners M M Ansari and A N Tiwari said in a judgment late this evening.

The judgment followed the refusal by the Supreme Court to entertain a query on the declaration of assets by judges. S C Agrawal had applied to the apex court for a copy of a Full Court Resolution passed on May 7, 1997, prescribing “every judge to make a declaration of assets in form of real estate or investments held in their names or in the name of their spouses and any person dependent on them to the Chief Justice”. He had also asked if judges had complied with the Resolution, and whether any high court judge had ever declared their assets to their respective Chief Justices. The Supreme Court had parted with a copy of the Resolution, but stonewalled the other queries.

The CIC rejected the Supreme Court’s refusal, during the hearing of the case, to disclose information on the declaration of assets by judges on the ground that this information was filed by judges with the Chief Justice of India (CJI) in a “voluntary and confidential manner”, and held by the latter in his “personal capacity” owing to the “fiduciary relationship” among members of the Bench.

... contd.