Punjab & Haryana High Court stays CIC order to furnish information on complaints against judges

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently stayed orders of the Chief Information Commission (CIC) directing the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the High Court to furnish details regarding complaints received against judges of the higher and lower judiciary in Punjab and Haryana. [High Court of Punjab & Haryana v. Central Information Commission].Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu stayed the CIC direction after hearing a petition moved through the Joint Registrar and the PIO of the High Court."Till the next date of hearing, operation of the impugned order shall remain stayed," the Bench recorded in its order.The case was listed for Wednesday, but was simply adjourned by two weeks when it was taken up..The petition challenged the order passed by the CIC on February 8 this year, in which it had found that the decision of the PIO to not disclose the information sought by Advocate Manish Vashishth to be legally untenable. The CIC had also asked the PIO to furnish information on complaints received against judges to the advocate in a revised format.Vashishth had on August 5, 2019 filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking information on complaints received against the judges of the lower courts of both the States as well as the Punjab and Haryana High Court since 2009.He sought details like the number of receipts, the status of the complaints, the action taken, and the time limit to decide such complaints..Initially, the information was denied in an order passed on September 3, 2019. He challenged the same before an appellate authority under the RTI Act, which came to be dismissed on October 1, 2019. The appellate authority in its orders stated that the advocate had no right under the 2005 Act to seek such third-party information. It stated that the information sought was personal in nature, and that Vashishth had failed to explain how disclosure of such information would serve any public interest.Subsequently, Vashishth moved the CIC in December 2019, which held on February 8 this year that the decision to deny information related to complaints against judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court since 2009 was not legally tenable. It had also ordered the PIO to furnish data on the number of complaints received and disposed of..Senior Advocate Gurminder Singh along with Advocate Rajeev Anand appeared for the PIO of the High Court..[Read order]