Our Lordships flew for just Rs 140 crore when the Presidents trip cost Rs 205 crore

The President of India, Pratibha Patil’s foreign visits has cost the exchequer a whopping Rs. 205 crore, a figure which makes what has been spent by the judges of our Supreme Court seem like a trifling sum indeed. Bar & Bench has obtained exclusive information pertaining to expenses incurred on air-travel by the judges of the Supreme Court.

The President of India, Pratibha Patil’s foreign visits has cost the exchequer a whopping Rs. 205 crore, a figure which makes what has been spent by the judges of our Supreme Court seem like a trifling sum indeed. Bar & Bench has obtained exclusive information pertaining to expenses incurred on air-travel by the judges of the Supreme Court.

The response to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by Bar & Bench’s Associate Editor, Raghul Sudheesh has provided some interesting data. The application sought information on the monthly expenditure and individual expenditure for each judge on flight travel for the time period 2007-2012.

The response received however included only a year wise break-up of the expenses.

The RTI reply stated that, “The expenses for all the Judges, including that of Judges who might have retired during the relevant years is incurred from the Financial Head of ‘Foreign Travel Expenses’. The detailed break-up is not held in the manner sought by you”.

Further the reply stated, “In so far as the data regarding expenditure incurred on flight travel per Hon’ble Judge for the period 2007-2012 is concerned, the nature of information sought involves examination and perusal of the records of almost five years manually which will involve installation of all staff available in the concerned section and other resources. The whole process would be detrimental to the day to day working of the concerned sections. Therefore, you may, if so advised, inspect personally only part of the record requested, after severance of the record containing information which is exempted from disclosure’.

Justice K. G. Balakrishnan served as the Chief Justice of India from January 14, 2007 till May 12, 2010 after which Justice S. H. Kapadia took over as the Chief Justice of India. It will be interesting to note that while our Lordships flew for more than Rs. 1 crore during Justice Balakrishnan’s tenure of three years, the judges in Kapadia's court spent a mere Rs. 22 lakhs in two years.

Response to RTI on Travel Expenditure