The Central Information Commission has directed the law Ministry to disclose the action taken, file noting and decisions by the Government on the requests to probe former Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan for alleged misconduct.
In its order on Friday, the CIC said that any correspondence between the Executive about a former CJI is not privileged correspondence.Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said that even if it is assumed for a moment that the information regarding ‘action taken’ on a request for probe against a former CJI is privileged, such ‘privilege’ is not expressly provided as a ground for rejection of a request for information under Section 8(1) of the Right to Information Act.
The case pertains to a request by RTI activist Subhash Agrawal for a probe against Balakrishnan for alleged misconduct while he was the CJI. Agrawal approached the CIC after the law Ministry rejected his petition.
The petitioner sought for the details of complaints, actions, file noting in regard to the allegations against Balakrishnan and his close relatives. The Government has not yet even made open the details of the findings of investigation by Income Tax against the former Chief Justice’s close relatives for amassment of wealth.
But Acharyulu held that, “the information sought has nothing to do with the privilege of Parliament or State legislature.”The correspondence between Executive about a former CJI is not privileged correspondence as per any provision of RTI Act or Constitution of India. It is not information given in fiduciary capacity,” said Information Commissioner.
Acharyulu said that non-disclosure of what Agrawal has sought would neither serve any public interest and nor would it harm any protected interest. He said that, in fact, public interest in its disclosure would outweigh the probable harm, if any, to protected (if at all protected) interests.
Quoting from a Supreme Court decision, the Information Commissioner said, “As rightly pointed out by Justice Bhagwati, the Commission holds that the Government’s privilege to withhold disclosure of documents is subject to right to information of the individual. “Commission directs the Department of legal Affairs to provide the action taken information about request for probe against former Chief Justice of India, KG Balakrishnan,” Acharyulu said.