06
January 2009
In
a boost to judicial accountability, the Central Information
Commission (CIC) on Tuesday rejected the Supreme Court's claim
that the Chief Justice of India was beyond the purview of RTI.
Accordingly, CIC directed SC to make public the information
available with CJI as to whether its judges had been, in terms
of a 1997 resolution, regularly filing declarations of their
assets.
The
decision taken by a three-member bench of CIC headed by Wajahat
Habibullah contradicts CJI KG Balakrishnan' s public statement
that being a Constitution office holder, he was exempt from RTI.
This is also contrary  to
the file notings made by Justice Balakrishnan, reported first in
TOI, approving SC's evasive reply in November 2007 that the
information relating to declaration of assets by judges was
"not held by or under the control of" its registry and
therefore could not be furnished by its information officer
under RTI.
Upholding
an appeal filed by RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, CIC
rebuffed SC's attempt to withhold information on the ground that
the registry, which came under RTI, was distinct from the CJI's
office, which was the custodian of the declarations of assets
made by SC judges.
Ruling
that the institution and its head could not be two distinct
public authorities, CIC said that the information available with
the CJI must be "deemed" to be available with Supreme
Court.
"If any information is available with one section of the
department, it shall be deemed to available with the public
authority as one single entity."
Since
the appellant did not seek copies of the declarations, CIC
disallowed SC's alternative contention that the information
could not be disclosed as it attracted exemption under Section
8(1)(e) as the declarations had been received by CJI in a
"fiduciary relationship" or
Section 8(1)(j) as it was "personal information" which
had "no relationship to any public activity or
interest." The bench consisting of Wajahat Habibullah, A N
Tiwari and M M Ansari directed SC's information officer to
disclose within 10 days to Agrawal whether its judges had been
filing declarations of assets in compliance with the resolution
adopted by the entire bench of the apex court in 1997.
Though
the judiciary had informally maintained that judges had been
filing declarations of assets, it was reluctant to say anything
on the subject under RTI lest it opened a floodgate of queries
related to judicial probity. The tacit, if self-serving,
suggestion was RTI could not be allowed to compromise judicial
independence.
Courtsy
from The Times of India
http://timesofindia
.indiatimes. com/India/ CJI_under_ RTI_purview_ CIC_tells_
SC/articleshow/ 3944793.cms
MICCI
Partners
-
Asian
College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai
-
Bombay
Bar Association (BBA).
-
Centre
for Media Research & Development Studies (CMRDS),
Kolkata
-
Friedrich
Ebert Stiftung (FES), New Delhi
-
ICON
Communications, Dehradun
-
Indian
Law Institute (ILI), Chennai
-
Indian
Women’s Press Corps (IWPC), New Delhi
-
Indira
School of Communication (ISC), Pune
-
Institute
of Development and Communication (IDC), Chandigarh
-
Mahamana
Madan Mohan Malaviya Institute of Hindi Journalism(MMMMIHJ),
Varanasi
-
Media
Education for Awareness and Cultural Transformation (MEDIACT),
Kerala
-
National
Institute of Social Work and Social Sciences (NISWASS),
Bhubaneswar
-
Prabhat
Khabar Institute of Media Studies (PKIMS), Ranchi
-
Seva
Smriti Sansthan (SSS), Patna
-
Society
for Media and Social Development(SMSD), Varanasi
-
South
Asian Media Association (SAMA), Hyderabad
-
St.
Andrews College, Mumbai
-
The
Department of Mass Communication, Rajasthan University
-
The
International Centre, Goa.
-
The
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Hyderabad
-
The
Kerala Press Union (KPU)
-
The
Press Club, Kolkata (PCK)
-
The
Press Club, Mumbai
-
UNESCO,
New Delhi
-
VOICES,
Bangalore
Write
for Development (WD), Bangalore
Release of the Book on RTI
Book
on RTI, written by Ms. Nandini Sahai and Vishnu Rajgadia,
Published by UNESCO, FES-India and MICCI has been released on
12th of October 2008, the third anniversary of the Right to
Information. The Ex. Chief Minister and Leader of opposition in
Jharkhand Mr. Arjun Munda released the book during a seminar on
RTI organized by Jharkhand RTI Forum and Junior Chamber
International in JCI Hall Ranchi. The State Information
Commissioners Mr. Shristidhar Mahto and Gangotry Kujur, Mr.
Balram (President of Jharkhand RTI Forum), Mr. Vishnu Rajgadia
(Secretary of Jharkhand RTI Forum), Gautam Kumar (President of
JCI] Ranchi) and Mr. Raajesh Kasera (Chairman, JCI RTI Cell were
present on dias). The event has been covered by the media at
large.
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Second Anniversary of RTI
Jharkhand RTI Forum Cebrates
Second Anniversary of RTI
Ranchi, 12
October : To mark the second anniversary of the Right to
Information Act (RTI), 2005 a symposium was organised by the
Jharkhand RTI Forum in association with Gram Swaraj Abhiyan at
Sandhya Tower, Ranchi. The benefits of the use of RTI including
the future course of action were discussed during the symposium.
Senior journalist and Resident Editor of Dhanbad and the
convener of Jharkhand RTI Forum, Vishnu Rajgadia said, “The RTI
Act has done miracle, it has provided benefits to the applicants
in all areas.” He stressed the on the need to use RTI and felt
that it would definitely provide the result if properly dealt
with. The President of Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Arun
Kumar Buddhia was present on the occasion that also stressed the
need for the consistent use of RTI. Advisor to the Commissioner
of the Supreme Court, Balram, said, “ We need think on the
positive note about the RTI and its uses.” Senior journalist
Sudhir Pal gave the examples of the RTI by Manthan Yuva Sansthan
to collect information. Gopi Nath, Mritunjay Sharma, Shakti
Pandey , Nilima Upadhya including others were present in the
symposium
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