New Delhi: The five-Judge constitution bench of SC will be assembled once again this week to hear some crucial arguments relating to five different cases including a judgement on whether or not the Chief Justice of India’s office should be brought under the transparency law – Right to Information Act (RTI).
In reply to a petition filed by RTI activist SC Agarwal, a three-judge bench of the Delhi High Court comprising justices AP Shah, Vikramjit Sen and S Murlidhar in the year 2010 held that the office of the CJI is a “public authority” and this comes under the RTI Act which was later on challenged in the Apex Court and since the past nine years, a stay has been put on the case, News18 reports.
Whether or not the top court to comes under transparency was then referred to a constitution bench in 2017 by the three-judge bench headed by now CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
The Central Public Information Officer is in appeal in this case with a petition against the 2010 Delhi High Court verdict.
Hearing the case back then, the top court had put a stay on the verdict but admitted the appeal.
The bench had then said: “RTI Act merely recognises the constitutional right of citizens to freedom of speech and expression. Independence of judiciary forms part of the basic structure of the Constitution. The independence of the judiciary and fundamental right to free speech and expression are of great value and both are required to be balanced. The current debate is a sign of a healthy nation.
This debate on the Constitution involves great and fundamental issues.”
But last week the three-judge bench headed by CJI Gogoi was referred to a larger bench. Since this case is not a common one, it might eventually go to a seven-judge bench.