Supreme Court misses deadline to give information on Judges' assets

"This is to inform you that an appeal against the judgment of the Learned Single Judge dated September 2, 2009 in writ petition number 288 of 2009 has been kept ready for filing," the apex court informed RTI applicant Subhash Chandra Agrawal through a letter. Rajpal Arora, Additional Registrar at the Supreme Court, wrote that the appeal could not be filed since the Delhi High Court has been on vacation and the registry is closed.

"Therefore, the appeal will be filed as soon as we are in a position to do so," he said. Earlier, the Central Information Commission had held that the office of Chief Justice comes under the ambit of RTI Act and it should provide information to any applicant exercising his right under the Law, a decision challenged by the Supreme Court in Delhi High Court. The High Court rejected the Supreme Court's plea, ruling that information held by the office of Chief Justice should come under the RTI Act. Justice Ravindra Bhatt upheld the CIC order to provide information pertaining to asset declaration by Supreme Court judges, sought by the applicant by September 30.