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The order has been passed in a matter that involved a Supreme Court collegium meeting dated December 12, 2018, wherein decisions were taken regarding the elevation of various judges to Supreme Court
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal challenging a single judge's order refusing to entertain a plea challenging the Central Information Commission's (CIC) order which had earlier dismissed an RTI appeal on Supreme Court collegium meeting agenda of December 12, 2018.
In the said meeting certain decisions were purportedly taken on the elevation of judges to the apex court.
A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad dismissed the challenge to the single judge's order upholding the Central Information Commission's order which denied any such information, stating that there is no material to disclose information on the decision taken by the Supreme Court Collegium on the said date.
The order has been passed in a matter that involved a collegium meeting dated December 12, 2018, wherein decisions were taken regarding the elevation of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog, then Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court, and Justice Rajendra Menon, then Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, to the Supreme Court. However, the decisions were not implemented, and the names were later removed.
An application was filed under the RTI Act to the Supreme Court’s CPIO for a copy of the agenda of the collegium meeting of December 12, a copy of the decision taken, and a copy of the collegium’s resolution.
The CPIO had denied the information citing that it is confidential, is exempted under Section 8 (1) (e) & (j) of the RTI Act and that the applicant has no right to access such information under Section 2 (j) of the RTI Act.
In the appeal, the first appellate authority dismissed the CPIO's arguments and upheld the denial of information on the grounds that no resolution exists.
Subsequently, the CIC also upheld the denial of information on the same ground as the first appellate authority.
A single judge bench of Justice Yashwant Varma of the Delhi High Court had dismissed the petition challenging the denial and ordered that a “decision” taken by the collegium must be embodied in a “resolution”, and since no resolution was passed at the meeting, no records could be provided.
In the appeal against the single judge bench order, it was emphasized that several documents and accounts are confirming the existence of the decisions made at the collegium meeting on December 12.
It was stated that the autobiography of the then Chief Justice of India, Justice Gogoi, who presided over the collegium, confirmed that decisions were made at the meeting and then goes on to state that the CJI chose not to send the decisions to the government and kept the matter on hold.
Justice Madan Lokur, one of the judges who served on the then-collegium, had also publicly confirmed that decisions were made at the meeting.
During the hearing today, Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the petitioner argued that under the RTI Act, any material that exists on record must be provided to citizens and that whether or not the decision was later embodied in the form of a resolution was immaterial to access information.
Case Title: Anjali Bharadwaj v. CPIO, Supreme Court of India
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