CJI office under RTI ambit, says SC

On 13 Nov, the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogai said that the office of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is a ‘public authority ‘under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005. The court decision dismissed the earlier three appeals filed by its Central Public Information Officer and Secretary General challenging the order. The apex court observed that “transparency and accountability should go parallel”. The five judge bench also said that the right to know under RTI was not absolute. The right to know of a citizen ought to be balanced with the right to privacy of individual judges.  The court ruled that  the disclosure of any personal information held by the office of the Chief Justice under RTI will be decided on a case-by-case basis and after assessing whether it serves public interest.