HC adjourns hearing in Judges assets case

The Delhi High Court deferred hearing on a petition filed by the Supreme Court challenging Central Information Commission order directing that information pertaining to assets of the judges should be revealed.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday deferred hearing on a petition filed by the Supreme Court challenging Central Information Commission (CIC) order directing that information pertaining to assets of the judges should be revealed.

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Justice S Ravinder Bhat adjourned the matter for further hearing on February 27 after Solicitor General GE Vahanvati sought time to file the reply.

The Court had on January 19 stayed the order of the CIC that the office of Chief Justice of India comes within the ambit of the RTI Act and information given to CJI has to be revealed to the RTI appplicant.

The petition was filed by the CPIO of Supreme Court challenging the January 6 order of the CIC.

In the petition, the Supreme Court said that information relating to declaration of assets by the apex court judges to the CJI was not a mandatory exercise under the law.

However, a full court resolution of Supreme Court on May 7, 1997 required every judge to declare to the CJI assets including properties or any other investment in the name of their spouse and any person dependent on them.