Information regarding dismissal of SLP and review petition by Supreme Court

Background

The Supreme Court had dismissed a Special leave Petition (SLP) and review petition filed by the appellant. Later, he filed an application under Right to Information (RTI) Act with rasing certain queries regarding the same. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided the available information. During the hearing, the appellant insisted that he wanted to know if the Supreme Court had considered all the documents received from the trial court before delivering its order. The respondents clarified that it was entirely beyond the scope of the RTI act to interpret an order passed by the Supreme Court and to come to a conclusion whether the judges had considered the trial court documents before passing any order.

View of CIC

The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that the queries of the appellant do not amount to information within the meaning of 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 the RTI Act. The CIC further noted that any order passed by the Supreme Court would speak for itself and it is not for the PIO or anyone else to interpret it or to speculate about the basis of that order. If any litigant is dissatisfied with the order for any reason, he has to seek remedy from the Supreme Court itself by following the procedure laid down in that regard and the PIO cannot be expected to provide any answer to the queries made by the appellant.

Citation: Mr. P Nagendhiran v. Supreme Court of India in File No.CIC/SM/A/2011/000864