‘Justice Nirmal Yadav’s transfer details secret’

The law ministry has said it cannot make public the advice tendered by the Chief Justice of India K. G. Balakrishnan over the transfer Justice Nirmal Yadav.

The law ministry has said it cannot make public the advice tendered by the Chief Justice of India K. G. Balakrishnan over the transfer Justice Nirmal Yadav.

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This comes a week after the Supreme Court refused to details of whether the CBI sought permission from the CJI to prosecute the controversial judge from the Punjab and Haryana High Court to Uttarakhand High Court.

Justice Yadav’s name had cropped up in the ‘cash-at-judge’s door’ case.

The ministry said the recommendation of the CJI to Law Minister Veerappa Moily on

the issue is “in the nature of advice tendered by the Cabinet”, which is exempted from disclosure under the Right to Information Act.

“As regards recommendation given by the Chief Justice of India regarding transfer of Ms Justice Nirmal Yadav, it is stated that such recommendation is in the nature of advice tendered by the Cabinet and is exempted under Section 8 (1)(i) of the RTI Act,2005,” S. K. Srivastava, deputy secretary in law ministry said in his reply to an RTI application.

Section 8 (1) (i) of the RTI Act cited by the ministry exempts “disclosure of cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers” provided “the decisions of Council of Ministers, the reasons thereof, and the material on the basis of which the decisions were taken shall be made public after the decision has been taken, and the matter is complete.”