HC admits SC's appeal on judges assets

The Delhi High Court admitted an appeal filed by the Supreme Court challenging its order which had held that the office of Chief Justice of India comes within the ambit of RTI Act and constituted a special three-judge bench to decide the issue.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday admitted an appeal filed by the Supreme Court challenging its order which had held that the office of Chief Justice of India comes within the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act and constituted a special three-judge bench to decide the issue.

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A bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Murlidhar fixed November 12 and 13 for deciding the appeal and directed listing of the matter on those two days.

The court did not pass a stay order on the single judge bench verdict of September 2 after the Supreme Court did not press for it.

The High Court had in its September 2 verdict on the controversial issue held that the CJI was a public authority and his office came within the purview of the transparency law.

The judgement was contrary to the stand taken by CJI K G Balakrishnan who had consistently been maintaining that his office is beyond the purview of the Right to Information Act.

The apex court had approached the High Court alleging that the judgement of the single judge bench was "bad in law" and "deserves to be set aside".

Pointing out 58 "errors" in the 71-page verdict of the single bench, the appeal filed by the Supreme Court Registry said, "The analysis of the single judge is essentially wrong and the conclusions reached by him are unjustified in law and Constitutional theory."