Move afoot to exempt CJI from RTI Act

NEW DELHI: The Manmohan Singh government seems to be disinclined to get into a tussle with the higher judiciary. A proposal to exempt the office of the Chief Justice of India from the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act is under the government’s consideration.

With the prime minister stepping in to back amendments to the Act, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and law ministry are likely to be on their toes to explore the possibilities of making the changes.

However, with BJP and Left parties strongly opposed to any dilution of the Act, the government may run short of numbers for passage of the amendments in the Rajya Sabha. “Why should the Chief Justice of India be excluded? What is the justification in it?” asked CPI MP D Raja on Friday.

Mr Manmohan Singh has reportedly backed changes in the RTI Act “to address the concerns of the judiciary.” He said that keeping the CJI office out of its purview will secure confidential information related to the appointment of judges and higher administrative decisions from public scanner.

CJI K G Balakrishnan had written to the prime minister seeking exemption from the RTI Act in certain matters. However, Congress president Sonia Gandhi is understood to be averse to changes in the Act, which was one of the UPA’s key legislation.

The Delhi high court in January had upheld its single bench order that the office of the Chief Justice of India comes within the purview of the RTI Act and details of judges assets should be revealed under that. The Supreme Court now has around a week to challenge the HC judgement. The Delhi high court had given petitioners a 60-day deadline to challenge the ruling.

Besides the proposal to keep CJI out of the Act’s purview, the amendments proposed are disallowing discussions on policy decisions to be made public and permitting frivolous queries.