RTI applies to Chief Justice of India

The Chief Justice of India is obliged to share information with the public under the Right to Information Act (RTI). This is what the Delhi High Court has ruled.

The country's top judge had been arguing that he is exempt from the RTI, and that he cannot share documents and files with him.

The issue is based on a complaint against a sitting high court judge in Allahabad.   The man who filed that complaint, 77-year-old P K Dalmia, filed an RTI application to know what action the Chief Justice had taken against this judge.  The Chief Justice said this was confidential information.

But in its ruling, the Delhi High Court says the Chief Justice of India is a public figure. "The Chief Justice of India will have to disclose all the information he has with him...all his correspondence, file notings," says Prashant Bhushan, Judicial Accountability and Reforms.

The Supreme Court will appeal against this latest order.