LI Network
Published on: 09 December 2022 at 19:42 IST
Supreme Court bench of justice MR Shah and CT Ravikumar dismissed a Plea seeking a Information of the resolution of the 2018 collegium meeting, Also seeking information about final Information and Decision.
Supreme Court bench Dismisses RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj’s Plea challenging the Delhi High Court order. The top court said that there was no substance in the plea challenging the Delhi High Court order and the same deserves to be dismissed.
The SC clarified that whatever is discussed in the collegium meeting shall not be in the public domain and “only the final decision is required to be uploaded”. The SC also clarified that the consultation dated December 12, 2018 had not concluded and hence was adjourned.
Petitioner Anjali Bhardwaj had sought a copy of the agenda, a copy of the decisions and a copy of the resolution of the Supreme Court collegium meeting held on December 12, 2018, in the RTI application.
The court said that the final resolution prepared and signed by the Collegium, which is always after due process and completion of the process of discussion, deliberation and consultation, is required to be published on the website of the Supreme Court.
The court noted that no final decision was taken in the December 2018 collegium meeting, which was required to be prepared and signed by all the members of the collegium. The Court also noted that the 2019 resolution is very clear in specifying that the process of consultation in the previous meeting was not concluded and remained incomplete.
Petitioner Anjali Bhardwaj, represented by Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan and Advocate Riya Yadav, challenged the Delhi High Court’s order dated July 27, 2022, which dismissed her plea for information under the Right to Information Act.
The appellant, in the RTI application, had sought a copy of the agenda, a copy of the judgments and a copy of the resolution of the Supreme Court collegium meeting held on December 12, 2018.
The resolution of the subsequent meeting as per the petition confirms that there was indeed an agenda for the previous collegium meeting on 12.12.2018 and further that certain decisions were indeed taken and confirmed in the public statement of Justice (Retd) Madan Lokur.
It was also done through statements. And statements made in the autobiography written by former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi (both of whom were members of the Collegium till 12.12.2018). The petitioner submitted that in such circumstances it cannot be said that the information does not exist.