The Central Information Commission (CIC) recently directed the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the Supreme Court of India to reexamine an application under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) seeking details on the number of corruption complaints received by the top court's Collegium against former acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, Justice T Raja.
The order was passed by CIC's Chief Information Commissioner Heeralal Samariya on October 7. The CIC, however, rejected a request for divulging action taken on any such complaints.
The Supreme Court PIO has maintained that it does not have a record of the information sought.
The order was passed on an appeal by independent journalist Saurav Das.
Das had requested information on three aspects, that is (i) whether any complaints of corruption or improper conduct were received with respect to Justice Raja's tenure (ii) If so, the total number of such complaints and (iii) The action taken on such complaints.
The CIC has directed the Supreme Court PIO to re-examine points (i) and (ii) and furnish the number of complaints, if such information has been maintained in their records.
"Commission, after perusal of case records and submissions made during hearing, directs the concerned PIO to re-examine the point No. 1 and point No. 2 of the instant RTI Application and furnish the number of complaint(s), if maintained in their records, or inform the Appellant accordingly, within 30 days," the order stated.
However, the CIC declined to order the sharing of information pertaining to what action was taken on such complaints, if any.
"Commission is of the considered opinion that the same is personal information of an individual and the Appellant (Das) is not even the complainant of the complaint(s); accordingly the same is exempted from disclosure under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act," the CIC reasoned.
Das today took to X (formerly Twitter) to voice his disappointment with the CIC's decision on this aspect, contending there cannot be any secrecy attached to such Collegium proceedings.
The CIC's decision came on a second appeal filed by Das. He had filed a Right to Information (RTI) application on April 25 last year seeking the information concerning Justice Raja.
The Supreme Court's public information officer had refused to provide the details, stating that no such information is maintained. This decision was upheld by another registrar in a first appeal, leading to a second appeal before the CIC.
The CIC has now asked the top court's PIO to re-examine its response and furnish details on the number of complaints received against the former High Court judge. With this directive, the second appeal was disposed of.
Justice Raja retired in May last year while the Supreme Court Collegium's repeated recommendations to transfer him to the Rajasthan High Court remained unnotified by the Central government.
A 2018 verdict of Justice Raja had raised eyebrows for stating that a person engaged as a "scavenger" or sweeper/ cleaner has to clean toilets and wash clothes, “irrespective of whether it is inner cloth or out cloth."
[Read CIC order]