Supreme Court to conduct open court hearing of review plea
24 Nov, 2012In a verdict given on September 13, 2012 in the case of Namit Sharma, the Supreme Court had directed the government to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 so that only retired or sitting judges could be appointed as Chief Information Commissioner. The court had held that the information commission is a 'judicial tribunal' performing functions of 'judicial' as well as 'quasi-judicial' nature and should work as a two member bench. One of the member should be a person with a judicial background.
The government had then moved court for the review of the verdict stating that the court cannot issue directions to the Legislature to amend an Act or Rule. It also contended that RTI Act is being used as a tool to acquire information by the common man without any legal formalities. The bench of Justice A.K. Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar of the Supreme Court has ruled said that it would hear the government's plea for review of the verdict in open court.