Information regarding complaint against Judges of HC and SC

Background

A complaint was filed against serving and retired Judges of High Courts/Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. The appellant sought for copies of those complaints and forwarding letters sent by Department of Justice to the Supreme Court and High Courts in this regard. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed the appellant that the sought letters were issued over three years and the clubbing of the copies would take time as the information were maintained in different files. The respondent also claimed that collation of sought information was a time consuming task and would disproportionately divert the resources of the Public Authority. The appellant submitted that the copies of forwarding letters for past one year should be provided while for the rest, whatever information is readily available may be provided to him.

View of CIC

The Central Information Commission (CIC) directed the PIO to provide the copies of all the forwarding letters for the past one year and the copies of forwarding letters which they can trace for the past 3 years. Noting that the Public Authority had failed to maintain their records in such a manner that it can be retrieved easily when requested for by information seekers under the RTI Act, the Commission directed the public authority to maintain the records properly.

Citation: Shri Subhash Chandra Agrawal v. Department of Justice in Case No. CIC/SS/A/2011/001270