Sunday, January 18, 2009

SC moves HC against CIC order on judges' assets

NEW DELHI: Worried over the fallout of a recent Central Information Commission (CIC) order on making the assets of judges public, the Supreme

Court registrar on Friday challenged it before the Delhi high court saying that this information, not being in public domain, could not be given to RTI applicants.

The high court is the appellate authority for challenging CIC's decisions — a fact that led to this unusual situation of the apex court moving a lower court over a dispute.

The apex court said information relating to declaration of assets by Supreme Court judges to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) was not a mandatory exercise under law, but driven by an informal resolution of May 7, 1997 — implying that information on judges' assets did not come under RTI's purview.

The petitioner added said the CIC had committed an error by equating the Supreme Court and the CJI as one and the same authority whereas the CJI's position was quite distinct from that of the Supreme Court in terms of the RTI Act.

"CJI is not a public authority, as defined under the RTI Act, and therefore, is not required to designate a central public information officer (central PIO) for it, or to supply information held or maintained by it," the appeal stated.

The CIC had on January 6 only directed the central PIO of the SC to furnish information as to whether any declaration of assets had been filed by SC judges or not.

But even this apparently innocuous order has led the Supreme Court to challenge the CIC order before the HC, saying that a public authority was bound to give information if these were available in public domain.

The SC registrar added that details of judges' assets was not information which was held by or under control of a public authority, since it was voluntarily furnished to the CJI, who himself could not be included in the definition of "public authority".

"There is nothing under the Constitution of India or under any other law which requires judges of the Supreme Court to declare their assets to the Chief Justice of India," said the petition, which was drafted by advocate Devdatt Kamath and settled by Solicitor General G E Vahanvati.

Quoting section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act which imposed a ban on furnishing of personal information, the SC Registrar said any query relating to assets of judges voluntarily declared before the CJI squarely fell within the meaning of Section 8(1)(j).

Moreover, "the office of the Chief Justice of India is a distinct office. It performs certain constitutional functions and cannot be equated with or said to be part of the registry of the Supreme Court, which holds information relating to other matters of the Supreme Court under the RTI Act."

Dr. Kalam inaugurates SCAORA website at first L.M. Singhvi lecture

Dr. Kalam inaugurates SCAORA website at first L.M. Singhvi lecture
1/17/2009

Former President Dr. A.P.J. Kalam today inaugurated the SCAORA website at first Dr. L. M. Singhvi Memorial Lecture organized by Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) and supported by Indlaw at New Delhi.

The lecture was presided over by Hon’ble Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Chief Justice of India and attended by dignitaries from the legal fraternity.

Speaking on the topic ‘Law, Technology & Society : Dynamics’ Dr. Kalam said that scientists and technologists have to be partners with legal community and evolve with legal framework so that judiciary is able to administer justice speedily using benefits of technology.

He emphasized the need to simplify law, discard irrelevant and old Acts with certain periodicity. On the issue of terrorism, he suggested the need for evolving an aggressive Mission called National Campaign to Eradicate Terrorism (NCET) to create:
(a) Unified intelligence Agency
(b) Enact a law with stringent punishments and faster justice to the perpetrators of the crime in a time bound manner
(c) Create a sense of awareness among the people to work
(d) Implement National Citizen ID card for all citizens
(e) Equitable National development for inclusive growth.

He emphasized on the role of law in dealing with cyber attacks during a conflict among the countries as well as issues of territorial jurisdiction. Answering media persons after the lecture, he told Indlaw that technology can help in identifying the movement and flow of information and identify what kind of wrong going on.

Indlaw correspondent