Delhi High Court reserves verdict in plea seeking details of December 2018 Collegium meeting

The Delhi High Court on Monday reserved its verdict in a petition seeking details of the the Supreme Court collegium meeting held on December 12, 2018, which were never made public [Anjali Bhardwaj v CPIO, Supreme Court of India]..Justice Yashwant Varma reserved the matter for order after advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the petitioner Anjali Bhardwaj, informed the Court that the plea was seeking a copy of the agenda as well as the decision taken at the December 2018 meeting..The petition said that on October 3, 2017 the collegium of the Supreme Court had resolved that the decision taken by it indicating the reasons will be put on its website whenever recommendations are sent to the Government with regard to initial elevation of judges to the High Courts, their appointments as permanent judges, elevation to the post of Chief Justice of High Court, transfer of High Court Chief Justices/Judges and elevation to the Supreme Court..The plea said that Bhardwaj had filed a request under the Right to Information (RTI) seeking details of the collegium meeting of the December 12, 2018 but the request was turned down by the Central Public Information Office (CPIO), Supreme Court..The plea stated that on December 12, 2018, a meeting of the collegium was held in which certain decisions were taken but no information about the same was put on the website.On January 10, 2019 a newly constituted collegium of the apex court (Without Justice Madan B Lokur) met again and passed a resolution which was uploaded on the website stating that that collegium had met on 12 December, 2018 to consider and recommend names for appointment as Judges in the Supreme Court and to consider proposal for transfer of Chief Justices and Judges of the High Courts.“The then Collegium on 12th December, 2018 took certain decisions. However, the required consultation could not be undertaken and completed as the winter vacation of the Court intervened. By the time the Court re-opened, the composition of the Collegium underwent a change. After extensive deliberations on 5th / 6th January, 2019, the newly constituted Collegium deemed it appropriate to have a fresh look at the matter and also to consider the proposals in the light of the additional material that became available. (emphasis supplied),” the petition quoted the resolution..Bhardwaj said that it was apparent from the above information that there was a meeting of collegium on December 12, 2018 with an agenda and some decisions were in fact taken in the meeting which, the newly constituted collegium, discussed in the subsequent meeting and deemed it fit to have a fresh look.The plea stated that Justice (Retd) Madan Lokur (who was a member of the collegium which met on December 12) gave an interview on 23 January, 2019 expressing his disappointment that the collegium resolution was not uploaded on the Supreme Court website.The petitioner filed the RTI application with the CPIO on 26 February 2019 but vide a letter dated March 11, 2019 the CPIO stated that information sought were held to be not proper by the First Appellate Authority (FAA) and therefore not relevant.“However, while disposing the appeal against the denial by the CPIO, the FAA held that in view of the Subsequent Collegium resolution dated 10.01.2019, it was clear that though certain decisions were taken in the Collegium meeting of 12.12.2018, the required consultations could not be completed therefore no resolution was formally passed, and hence information asked for could not be supplied to the Petitioner.”The Second Appeal before the Central Information Commission (CIC) was also denied on the same grounds on 16 December, 2021. The petition challenged this order of the CIC..CIC rejects RTI plea seeking details of December 2018 Collegium meeting

Delhi High Court reserves verdict in plea seeking details of December 2018 Collegium meeting

Prashant Jha

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