The constitutional bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the office of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India will come under the purview of RTI.
A five-judge constitutional bench headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has ruled on it. The Constitutional Bench consists of Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice NV Ramanna, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjeev Khanna. The constitutional bench had on April 4 reserved its decision in the matter.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi upheld the Delhi High Court's 2010 verdict and dismissed three appeals against the Secretary General of the Supreme Court and the Central Public Information Officer of the apex court against it.
The bench cautioned that the Right to Information Act cannot be used as a weapon of surveillance and judicial independence has to be kept in mind while considering the issue of transparency. The bench clarified that the recommendations of the names of judges can only be given by the collegium and not its reasons.
