Supreme Court RTI Rejection: An application to view the investigative report on the substantial sum of cash discovered at Justice Yashwant Varma’s home was denied by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court of India rejected a request for access to the internal inquiry report about the finding of a sizable sum of cash at Justice Yashwant Varma’s official house made in accordance with the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.
A copy of the internal investigation committee’s findings and the letter the Chief Justice of India sent to the President and Prime Minister forwarding it were sought in Amritpal Singh Khalsa’s RTI application. On May 9, the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the Supreme Court denied the application.
The CPIO said the requested material could not be released, citing the legal guidelines set forth in the Supreme Court of India vs. Subhash Chandra Agrawal case.
In order to support the rejection, the RTI Cell further cited pertinent RTI Act provisions 8(1)(e) and 11(1). Information maintained in a fiduciary role cannot be disclosed unless it serves a greater public interest, according to Section 8(1)(e). Information about third parties is excluded from disclosure under Section 11.
The Supreme Court’s Additional Registrar and CPIO reaffirmed in a letter answer dated May 21 that the information was not available.
In the answer, important legal factors such as judicial independence, the proportionality test, fiduciary ties, the right to privacy, and the obligation of secrecy were mentioned, citing the November 13, 2019 ruling in CPIO, Supreme Court of India vs. Subhash Chandra Agrawal.
Supreme Court RTI Rejection: Why the Justice Yashwant Varma Inquiry Raises Alarming Questions About Transparency in the Judiciary
The internal investigation was started when Justice Varma’s official residence caught fire on the evening of March 14 and officials found a sizable quantity of cash in the outhouse’s store room.
Justice Varma was a judge on the Delhi High Court at the time. On the Chief Justice of India’s order, he was later moved to the Allahabad High Court and his judicial duties were terminated.
The final inquiry report was not made public, but the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court’s preliminary report, Justice Varma’s rejoinder, and Delhi Police images and videos were posted on the Supreme Court’s website.
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