Supreme Court asked to disclose rules for appointing arbitrators
SC to make rules for appointment of its retired judges as arbitrators, medical reimbursement by judges and list of resolutions.
By PTI | Updated:
NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission has directed the Supreme Court to make public rules relating to appointment of its retired judges as arbitrators and medical reimbursement made to individual judges during last three years, dismissing objections raised by the apex court.
Clubbing together three RTI applications of activist Subhash Agrawal, the transparency panel also directed the apex court to disclose the list of all resolutions passed by meetings of all the judges since 1997.
The information sought in three separate applications was denied by the Supreme Court either on the grounds that it was personal in nature or it was not available in the form sought by Agrawal.
Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra rejected the grounds cited by the Supreme Court for withholding the information and directed it to furnish rules and guidelines relating to appointment of apex court judges as arbitrators, medical reimbursement by judges, list of resolutions.
He said it was "very difficult" to accept the contention of the Supreme Court that "simple statistical information" as the total expenses incurred on medical reimbursement for individual judges or the list of resolutions passed in meetings of all its judges should not be available.
"All offices funded by the State have to maintain accounts of all expenses made on such heads as medical records again to provide to the appellant within 15 days of receipt of this order," Mishra said.
He directed the Supreme Court to ensure that arrangements are made in future for maintaining such information in digital format as mandated under the RTI Act so its retrieval and disclosure would become easier.
Clubbing together three RTI applications of activist Subhash Agrawal, the transparency panel also directed the apex court to disclose the list of all resolutions passed by meetings of all the judges since 1997.
The information sought in three separate applications was denied by the Supreme Court either on the grounds that it was personal in nature or it was not available in the form sought by Agrawal.
Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra rejected the grounds cited by the Supreme Court for withholding the information and directed it to furnish rules and guidelines relating to appointment of apex court judges as arbitrators, medical reimbursement by judges, list of resolutions.
He said it was "very difficult" to accept the contention of the Supreme Court that "simple statistical information" as the total expenses incurred on medical reimbursement for individual judges or the list of resolutions passed in meetings of all its judges should not be available.
"All offices funded by the State have to maintain accounts of all expenses made on such heads as medical records again to provide to the appellant within 15 days of receipt of this order," Mishra said.
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He directed the Supreme Court to ensure that arrangements are made in future for maintaining such information in digital format as mandated under the RTI Act so its retrieval and disclosure would become easier.
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