Gujarat HC to provide information regarding the monitoring system in Judiciary
30 May, 2014
The applicant sought to know from the Gujarat High Court (which is the supreme supervisor of all the subordinate courts in the state) whether there have any system for monitoring of the disposal of cases and also whether information technology is used for the effective monitoring of disposal of cases by the subordinate courts. Gujarat HC denied information stating that information asked does not falls under the definition of ‘information’ under Section 2(f)
“information” means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force;
of RTI Act.
The matter came up in second appeal before the Gujarat State Information Commission which ordered the High Court of Gujarat to provide information regarding the monitoring system in Indian Judiciary on issues like the status of pending cases, monitoring the cases of Subordinate judiciary, the periodicity of such monitoring and the use of information technology system for monitoring.
The Commission observed that such information are normally covered under Section 4 of the RTI Act and made a part of the proactive disclosure of the Gujarat High Court, so that the citizens come to know about the functioning of the Gujarat High Court and also monitoring of the subordinate courts.
Activists have pointed that the there has been very ineffective monitoring of cases in the courts of the country. This case may lead the way for some sort of pressure on the high courts of the country to exercise more control on the disposal of cases in subordinate cases.