HC stays info panel direction to open up.

The Times of India: Chennai: Wednesday, August 01, 2012.

The Madras high court has stayed a state information commission order directing its registry to furnish details such as the vigilance mechanism in the judiciary, complaints against subordinate judicial officers and the fate of those complaints, to an applicant under the RTI Act.

A division bench comprising Justice P Jyothimani and Justice M Duraiswamy granted interim stay on Tuesday, on a writ petition filed by the registrar-general of the high court.

The matter relates to an RTI application filed by K Elango of KK Nagar seeking replies to 10 queries under the RTI Act. Starting from the number of subordinate judges in service in the state, the application sought details of the number of employees in the subordinate judiciary, staff strength of the vigilance department of the high court, style of functioning of the vigilance department, presence of special team to trap corrupt judicial officers and court employees, and the number of corruption complaints received and action taken on them.

After the high court rejected the query, he filed an appeal before the state information commission. On January 10 the commission allowed the appeal and asked the high court to furnish the information sought by Elango within 15 days. Against this order, the registrar-general has filed the present writ petition.

In his petition, the registrar-general submitted that the information commission had failed to realize that the information sought by Elango clearly infringed on the internal administration of the high court, and that the commission was wrong in entertaining the appeal, because the motive of the applicant was to hinder the administrative functions of the high court.

Noting that the information was barred by the provisions of the RTI Act, he said administration of any public authority would come to a standstill if such frivolous applications were entertained. The bench has also issued notice to Venkatesh.