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Synopsis

The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea seeking to bring the Supreme Court of India under the ambit of Right to Information.

While doing so, a Chief Justice of India UU Lalit led bench remarked, " It (petition) 'is a good one' but it cannot be entertained under Article 32."

The plea by a 5th year law student, Ramey Krishna Rana challenged the non-availability of the Supreme Court and the Indian Judiciary over the RTI online portal even after 8 years of its enactment.

The petition further highlighted how the process of physical filing of RTI has been gravely hampered due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and that physical filing of RTI application has become a costly affair in "its truest sense".

Unnecessary expenditure is incurred via Manual/paper mode filing which leads to wastage of human resources as well as public funds while all can be eliminated by bringing the Hon’ble Court over the RTI online portal, the plea stated.

Rana also referred to the E-Committee project initiated by Dr. Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud and contended that the E-Committee is using technology for widening the access of justice in a socially purposive manner, and similarly, such technological development requires to be done in the RTI filing procedures as well. 

In the alternate, the petition called for a self-contained portal for the Indian judiciary in case the Apex Court cannot be made available over the RTI online portal of Government of India.

It is to be noted that last year, the Supreme Court had declined to part with information under the RTI Act in connection with a letter issued by the Supreme Court Bar Association proposing names of top court advocates for appointment of High Court judges.

The Apex Court had then said, "the information sought is exempted under provisions of Section 8 (1) (e) and Section 11 (1) of the Right to Information Act, being third party information”. 

RTI Act of 2005 sets out a practical regime for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities.

The legislation was formulated in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority, the constitution of a Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Case Title: Ramey Krishan Rana vs. Union of India and Ors.