CIC rejects RTI plea seeking details of December 2018 Collegium meeting

The Central Information Commission (CIC) on Thursday upheld an order of the First Appellate Authority under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, refusing to divulge details of the decisions taken at the Supreme Court Collegium’s meeting held on December 12, 2018..The RTI application by activist Anjali Bhardwaj had sought information about the meeting of the then collegium comprising former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Madan B Lokur, AK Sikri, SA Bobde and current Chief Justice of India NV Ramana..At the meeting, the collegium had taken certain decisions regarding the appointment of judges. However, those resolutions were not uploaded on the Court’s website. In a subsequent meeting, those decisions were overturned..The RTI Application sought the following information:1. “Please provide a copy of the agenda of the meeting of the Collegium of the Supreme Court held on December 12, 2018.2. Kindly provide a copy of the decisions taken on the meeting of the Collegium of the Supreme Court held on December 12, 2018.3. Kindly provide a copy of the resolutions of the Collegium meeting held on December 12, 2018.”.The public information officer of the Supreme Court had denied this information citing section 8(1) (b) of the RTI Act, which states: information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court], (e) [information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship] and (j) [information which relates to personal information of the RTI Act..The First Appellate Authority under the Act upheld the decision of the PIO, but set aside the grounds for it. The Appellate Authority held that no resolutions had been passed by the collegium on the said date.“It is thus clear that though certain decisions were taken on 12th December, 2018, the required consultation could not be taken and completed and, therefore, their arises no question of passing any Resolution by the Collegium on 12th December, 2018 as claimed by appellant. In absence of any such resolution, the information could not be supplied to her,” it said..In the appeal before the CIC, the appellant had stated that even in the case no resolution was passed, a copy of the meeting’s agenda and the decisions taken then were denied without citing any exemptions..The CIC in its decision, however, upheld the denial of information by the Appellate Authority stating that the final outcome of the fate of the meeting dated December 12, 2018 has been discussed in the subsequent resolution of January 10, 2019.“On perusal of the resolution dated 10.01.2019 it is clear that the agenda for the meeting dated 12.12.2018 has been mentioned therein which answers point no 1 of the instant RTI application. With regard to the remaining points, the Commission concurs with the order of the FAA dated 23.04.2019 and holds that in the absence of any resolution passed in the meeting dated 12.12.2018, no available information as per Section 2 (f) exists on record which can be disclosed to the Appellant. Furthermore, the final outcome of the fate of the meeting dated 12.12.2018 has been discussed in the resolution dated 10.01.2019. Hence, no further intervention of the Commission is required in the instant Second Appeal which is disposed off accordingly.”