Hindustan
Times: New Delhi: Friday, 08 January 2016.
In a setback
to transparency in judiciary, the Delhi high court on Thursday set aside a
Central Information Commission order that directed the Supreme Court’s
information officer to give information on the number of cases in which verdict
hasn’t been delivered after completion of hearing.
“We do not
find any other provision under the (RTI) Act under which a direction can be
issued to the public authority to collate the information in the manner in
which it is sought by the applicant,” said a division bench of chief justice G
Rohini and justice Jayant Nath.
The HC
reversed a 2014 order of a single judge who had upheld the CIC’s order
directing the Supreme Court registry to maintain the records in a manner so
that information regarding the period for which the judgments are pending after
being reserved is available with the top court.
RTI activist
Commodore (Retd) Lokesh K Batra wanted to know the figures for such cases for
2007, 2008 and 2009. However, the Supreme Court’s CPIO refused to give information
saying “data is not maintained in the registry in the manner sought for”.
The top court
had been cagey about sharing information regarding its functioning.
Supreme Court
Additional Registrar had said “data is not maintained in the registry in the
matter sought for by you…The matters filed in the Supreme Court are pending/sub
judice matters before the hon’ble court till they are decided”.
In 2001, the
Supreme Court had issued guidelines for the high courts and lower courts,
asking them to pronounce verdicts within reasonable time. If a judgment is not
delivered within three months from the date of reserving it, any of the parties
can move the same high court for an early judgment, it had said. Batra told HT,
“I will challenge the verdict after consulting with my lawyer.”
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