Is Judiciary Accountable? – Full Bench of CIC paves the way
The Full Bench of the Central Information Commission delivered a landmark decision on the issue of declaration of assets of the judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court.
Under the Right to Information Act, the applicant Mr. S. C. Agrawal sought a copy of the resolution dated 07.05.1997 of the Full Bench of the Apex Court on declaration of assets by the Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts and also wanted to know whether any declarations were received in this regard from the judges of the Supreme Court by the CJI of Supreme Court and from the judges of the High Courts by the respective CJIs.
As is the usual norm with any public authority, the information sought by the applicant was denied to him by taking recourse to technicalities the notable among them being that the information is filed with the CJIs and not with the Supreme Court (or the respective High Courts). To compound matters further, the applicant was also directed to seek information pertaining to High Court Judges from the respective High Courts.
On appeal, the Full Bench of the CIC held that there cannot be a distinction between the Office of the CJI and that of the Supreme Court and directed the CPIO of the Supreme Court to provide the information sought by the applicant within ten working days. The CIC rejected the arguments that the information filed is voluntary and in private domain.
This landmark decision paves the way for more transparency in Judiciary. While the steps taken by the Chief Justice of India in rooting out corruption in higher echelons of Judiciary were indeed commendable, what is disturbing is the fact that basic information as to whether the Judges have declared their assets or not was denied on technicalities. When the contestants to Legislatures and Parliament are bound to declare their assets at the time of filing their nomination papers for contesting elections and the nature of these assets are scrutinized by the public (read media), where is the need for the Judges to gloss over this information on some pretext or the other. If there is seriousness in bringing in Judicial accountability then this is the first step in the right direction.