Should the Supreme Court provide a record of judicial hangings under RTI?
30 Jul, 2012Background
The appellant filed two applications under Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking information related to the number of judicial hangings ordered by the Supreme Court during the last five years and the amount of fine imposed during the same period. The Public Information Officer (PIO) referred the applicant to the Supreme Court website for some of the details and pointed out that the desired information was not maintained by the Supreme Court in the form in which it had been sought. During the hearing, the respondents pointed out that no such information was being maintained and that the text of each order passed by the Supreme Court would have to be read and scrutinized to find out about the nature of punishment imposed in any particular case. The appellant insisted that such information should be maintained by the Supreme Court as it is of great public interest.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) rejected the appeal noting that neither of the two main items of information sought was available with the Supreme Court.
Citation: Mr. Nitesh Kumar Tripathi v. Supreme Court of India in File No.CIC/SM/A/2011/001411 & 2452
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/520
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission