Should the benches of Supreme Court be set up outside Delhi?

Information was sought regarding setting up of Benches of Supreme Court outside Delhi by Shri Rajiv Rufus who also wanted a copy of intimation/advice sent by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India to Parliamentary Standing Committee. As the information was denied, the matter came up before the Central Information Commission (CIC).

During the earlier hearing, the counsel for the Respondents, Shri Rohit Sharma stated that the information in question here attracts exemption under section 8(1)(a) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; of the RTI Act and cited the Commission's decision in M Pari V Supreme Court of India; No. CIC/SM/A/2013/000074; dated 9.7.2013 in his support. After hearing the appeal, an interim order dated 24.4.2014 was passed wherein the CIC directed that since the decision of the Respondents does not deal with the exemption now being claimed by them, the respondents were asked to file a written explanation before the Commission within 10 days as to how exemption under section 8(1)(a) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; is attracted with regard to the information in question.

Subsequently, the counsel for the respondents submitted that the respondents have been instructed to disclosure of extracts of operative portion of four full court Resolutions on the issue of setting up of Supreme Court Benches for the years 1999, 2001, 2004 and 2010 to the appellant. Since there was no full Court Resolutions on the said issue in the year 2006, the applicant cannot be provided the same for the year 2006 as desired by him. The counsel further submitted that complete full court resolutions and related documents cannot be divulged under section 8(1)(a) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; of the RTI Act which permits an authority to deny information disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence. It was contended that in the present case, the issue pertaining to disclosure of information relating to setting up of benches of Supreme Court in different parts of the country is a very sensitive issue. If information pertaining to such issue is disclosed at a premature stage, it will bring the information in the public domain, which will invariably lead to politicization of the entire issue. It will also lead to unnecessary speculation in the public about different view points on the subject. In case of such politicization, taking a proper and well considered decision would not be possible. Thus, the system would become unworkable in practice and therefore the disclosure of the information requested cannot be allowed in view of the interest of efficient functioning of the institution and preservation of confidentiality of sensitive information as recognised by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the above case. The appellant was represented by Shri Venkatesh Nayak, Shri Pari Vendan and Shri H. Arokkiaraj.

The bench of Chief Information Commissioner Sushma Singh referred the appeal to a full bench for a decision on the issue whether the information sought regarding setting up of Benches of Supreme Court outside Delhi is barred under section 8(1)(a) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; of the RTI Act or not. The appeal was also referred on the issue whether the copy of intimation/advice sent by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India to Parliamentary Standing Committee is disclosable in the present stage or not.

Citation: Shri Rajiv Rufus v. Supreme Court in Case No. CIC/SM/A/2013/000863-SS