Shivani Gadhavi
Published On: December 04, 2022 at 14:32 IST
The Central Information Commission (CIC) declined to give access to a report by the Supreme Court which had submitted a clean chit to the Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in a case related to Allegations of Sexual Harassment, to an Appellant who sought the report in a Plea.
The aforementioned Plea was filed by Ramesh Chidambram who approached the Central Information Commission (CIC) seeking the Supreme Court report after his application under Right to Information (RTI) for access to the report was rejected by the Registry of the Supreme Court.
The Report of the Supreme Court gave clean chit to the Former Chief Justice of India in May, 2019 in Sexual harassment charges made against him. The Supreme Court while absolving Ranjan Gogoi of the aforementioned charges cited a Judgment of the Supreme Court from 2003 and claimed that the Judgment judicially restricts disclosure of the contents of the report.
The Public Information Office of the Supreme Court also reasoned that the Applicant cannot get access to the Report as he has no required ‘Locus standi’ (Right to approach the Court in a matter) to ask for the Report. Therefore, the Supreme Court and the Registry of the Supreme Court denied to make the contents of the report public.
The Central Information Commission (CIC) also cited the 2003 case which the Supreme Court had cited, and ruled that the Appellant cannot get access to the Report. The Chief Information Commissioner Y K Sinha maintained the Registry’s claim of Right to Privacy in regards with the plea of Mr. Chidambaram.
