Info on HC website incomplete, outdated

The Hindu‎: Madurai: Monday, August 29, 2016.

Anyone visiting the Madras High Court website looking for essential information, such as profile of a sitting judge, is sure to be disappointed. For the chances of finding the required information would be less than 50 per cent since the website provides the profile of only 15 out of 38 judges. No information is available with respect to the other 23 judges.

On September 30, 2009, the Full Court (a gathering of all judges) passed a resolution for voluntary disclosure of their assets. Then, it was also decided to host such disclosure on the High Court website. Some of the judges who got elevated subsequently too had disclosed their assets. However, as on date, the assets of only 25 judges had been hosted.

The last time the information on judges’ assets got updated on the website was when Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul declared his assets after assuming office in July 2014.

Similarly, the list of former Chief Justices had not been updated on the website, as it misses out Justice R.K. Agrawal, who served as Chief Justice from October 14, 2013 till his elevation to the Supreme Court in February 2014. The list on the website ends with M.Y. Eqbal, whose two-year tenure as Chief Justice of the High Court ended on December 21, 2012.

Further, the website, which claims to have been updated last on August 10, continues to retain the name of Justice P. Kalaiyarasan as the Registrar-General of the court in the information related to duties and responsibilities of court officials, though he got elevated as a judge on April 7 itself.

It also contains a compendium of speeches delivered by former Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam, at the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy, with the term 'New' flickering next to the link.

Lawyers contend that such restricted information in public domain agitates against Section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005, which makes it mandatory that every public authority disclose “suo motu” as much information as possible at regular intervals through various means of communication.