SC challenges CIC order before itself

Apex court bypasses Delhi High Court where petitions are pending

The Supreme Court registry also challenged another order of the CIC which asked it to disclose communication between the chief justice of India and Justice Raghupathy of the Madras High Court on the alleged interference by a Union minister in a sub judice matter.

Interestingly, the apex court bypassed the subordinate authority, the Delhi High Court, where appeals against the CIC order have been filed. This may  be because one of the judges who was superseded by the Supreme Court collegium is Justice A P Shah, the incumbent Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, who will retire within three months.

The CIC had directed the court to divulge the information, contending that the material held by the CJI was kept under fiduciary relationship and should be exempted from being made public under Section 8(1)e of the transparency law.

Whether the CJI’s office comes within the ambit of RTI or not is pending before a full bench of the Delhi High Court after a single judge bench rejected the apex court’s plea that all the information with the CJI cannot be revealed under the RTI. The CIC,  has held that the office of the CJI comes within the purview of the RTI Act.