The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the office of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is a public authority under the Right to Information Act.
Reading out the verdict, Justice Sanjiv Khanna said public interest demands that transparency is maintained.
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“Transparency does not undermine judicial independence,” the judge, who is also in the line of succession to be the CJI, was quoted as stating in reports.
The order was passed by a five-judge Constitution bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
Other members of the bench are Justices N V Ramana, D Y Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.
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A five-judge constitution bench had on April 4 reserved its verdict on the appeals filed in 2010 by the Supreme Court secretary general and its central public information officer against the high court and the central information commission’s (CIC’s) orders.
The bench, headed by the chief justice, had wrapped up the hearing, saying nobody wants a “system of opaqueness”, but the judiciary cannot be destroyed in the name of transparency.