Should information on Supreme Court judges’ assets be made public? The Central Information Commission (CIC) argues they should but the Chief Justice of India (CJI) disagrees and the Supreme Court registry has challenged the CIC’s order on the declaration of judges’ assets. On the 19th of January, the Delhi High Court responded to the registrars appeal and stayed the order of the CIC. This controversy has serious ramifications both on the scope and powers of the Right to Information Act (RTI) as well as on efforts to promote transparent and accountable governance in India and hence merits serious attention.

The issue of declaration of judges’ assets was first mooted in 1997 when the Supreme Court passed an informal resolution that required judges to declare their assets, in private, to the Chief Justice. In November 2007, an RTI application was filed in the Supreme Court requesting a copy of this resolution as well as any details on judges that had furnished such information. In responding to this application and the subsequent Information Commission order, the Supreme Court has argued that this ‘informal’ resolution was not a mandatory exercise under the law and therefore the CJI cannot be ordered to disclose it. The CJI has also stated that when this information is submitted to the Chief Justice, it is done so in ‘private’ and therefore these documents are not, and cannot be, made public.

The Supreme Court’s response highlights two critical issues. The first relates to the scope and powers of the RTI Act — Who or what institutions ought to fall within the purview of the RTI? In its order to the Supreme Court, the Information Commission draws on the technicalities of the Act to argue that the Supreme Court and the CJI as its head qualify as ‘Public Authorities’. The Act defines a Public Authority as any authority, body, or institution of self-government established by the constitution, the Parliament’ State legislatures or by government notifications and orders. By this definition the Supreme Court — as an institution created by the constitution — is unquestionably a ‘Public Authority’.

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