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Name minister who got in touch with judge, CIC tells SC
The country’s transparency watchdog has asked the Supreme Court to name the minister who had asked a high court judge for a favour in a case.
The country’s transparency watchdog has asked the Supreme Court to name the minister who had asked a high court judge for a favour in a case.
The Central Information Commission, in a separate ruling, also asked the apex court on Wednesday to make public the records of denial of promotion to three judges, including Delhi High Court Chief Justice A.P. Shah, last year.
The information panel sought details of correspondence between the government and the panel of country’s senior-most judges (collegium).
The information panel passed these orders on seven appeals filed by a Delhi resident, Subhash Chandra Agrawal, against the denial of information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by the Supreme Court.
Agrawal had asked for the letter written by Madras High Court judge R. Raghupati to Chief Justice of India K.G.
Balakrishnan in June.
“The judge had reportedly alleged that a Union minister, through his lawyer, spoke to him on telephone allegedly seeking favours in a case being probed by the CBI (Central Bureau of Information),” Agarwal said.
He quoted media reports, saying the CJI had admitted that Justice Raghupati had written to him.
On the issue of promotion, the RTI activist had asked for complete correspondence, including file notings between the “concerned constitutional authorities” on the issue.
“Three Supreme Court judges were appointed superseding the seniority of Justices Shah, A.K. Patnaik and V.K. Gupta. This was objected to even by the Prime Minister’s Office,” Agrawal said in his appeal.
The Supreme Court has been asked to furnish the information within 15 days.
