New Delhi: Disclosure of information under Right to Information Act about judicial appointments, transfers of Supreme Court judges, etc., would amount to interference in judicial independence, asserted attorney-general K.K. Venugopal in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The A-G, appearing for the secretary general of the apex court, made this submission before a five-judge Constitution Bench comprising the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices N.V. Ramana, D.Y. Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna hearing an appeal whether such information could be disclosed or not.
The Supreme Court’s appeal in 2010 was agai-nst a CIC order, directing the CJI’s office to disclose details of correspondence between the collegium and the government on the appointment of three Supreme Court judges under the RTI Act.
The case related to an RTI request by activist Subhash Chandra Agarwal on the appointment of judges. The apex court in its appeal maintained that it is in public interest to keep the appointment and transfer from needless intrusions by strangers and busybodies in the functioning of the judiciary.
