New Delhi, Jan 11 (Inditop.com) The Delhi High Court is likely to pronounce itself Tuesday on the Supreme Court registry ‘s appeal against its earlier ruling that the office of Chief Justice of India comes within the purview of the Right to Information Act and details of judges’ assets should be revealed.
A bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justices S. Muralidhar and Vikramjeet Sen had reserved its order in November 2009.
Attorney General Goolam E. Vahanvati, appearing for the apex court registry, had contended that the resolution regarding declaration of assets by judges was non-statutory, non-binding and it could not force a judge to declare assets to the Chief Justice of India.
The attorney general said the high court single-judge bench had erred in declaring that the office of CJI comes within the ambit of the RTI Act and had interpreted the provisions of the legislation too broadly, which was “unnecessary” and “illogical”.
The high court in its Sep 2 verdict on the controversial issue held that the CJI was a public authority and his office came within the purview of the transparency law.
The judgment was contrary to the stand taken by CJI K G Balakrishnan. who had consistently maintained that his office is beyond the purview of the RTI law.
