Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (SP)

New Delhi, Oct 7: An appeal was filed in the High Court (HC) here on Monday October 5, against a single bench verdict of the HC, relating to the declaration of assets by the Supreme Court judges.

Through the impugned order, one of the judges of the HC had held that the information about the declaration of assets owned by the Supreme Court judges, which is being filed by the judges with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, fall within the ambit of the Right to Information Act. Through the order, the judge had directed the Public Information Officer and the registrar of the Supreme Court to release the information sought for by the plaintiff, Subhash Chandra Agarwal, within four weeks. Agarwal had wanted to know as to how many judges of the Supreme Court had declared their assets as per a resolution passed on May 7, 1997 by the full bench of the Supreme Court.

The Chief Information Officer has contended that the Chief Justice of India is not a public authority as defined in the Right to Information Act. He further said that the Chief Justice is not required to designate the Central Public Information Officer to supply information held by it. He also argued that the declaration of assets by SC judges is not covered under the RTI Act and that the applicant does not have any right to seek such information under the Act.

In his submission, the Supreme Court registrar said that there are 58 mistakes in the 71-page verdict delivered by the single judge bench of the HC  in the said case. The appeal has been filed with a delay of five days after the expiry of time limit set by the judge for delivering information.