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July 28, 2020

By: Venkatesh Nayak

Last week, the Central Information Commission (CIC) remanded a two-and-a-half-year old RTI query about the procedures adopted for takipci satin al ensuring adequate representation for candidates belonging to weaker segments of society in the higher judiciary back to the Department of Justice (DoJ) for fresh consideration. DoJ had not bothered to send any reply to either the RTI application or the first appeal filed in 2018 until a second appeal was filed before the CIC. Even in its 5-month late reply, DoJ merely cited "confidentiality" for all communication between the Central Government and the Chief Justices on this subject and a 10-year-old RTI case that was pending in the Supreme Court of India at that time ro refuse to part with any information. Now the CIC has given the DoJ another opportunity to apply its mind to the RTI query on the ground that the 10-year old case was decided in November 2019 when a Constitution Bench of the Apex Court recognised that the Chief Justice of India and the Supreme Court were all covered by The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act), fairly and squarely.