SC rejects plea seeking information of collegiums’ meet on Judges’ appointment

The Supreme Court dismissed a petition on Friday asking for information about the Supreme Court collegium’s meeting on December 12, 2018, in accordance with the Right to Information Act (RTI). The petitioner demanded information about a meeting where alleged decisions regarding the elevation of some judges to the top court were made.

The Supreme court said that discussions within the judges-selecting judges Collegium system cannot be put in the public domain through RTI. 

The Court made the observation that only the final resolution can be considered as the decision and whatever is discussed is not required to put in the public domain.

While dismissing a petition, Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar said that the discussion cannot be disclosed to the public and that only the final decision of the Collegium needs to be uploaded to the website.

The supreme court further said that “unless a final decision is taken and a resolution is passed, it cannot be said to be a final decision of the collegium”. 

The Supreme court issued an order in response to the petition filed by Anjali Bharadwaj, an RTI,   to overturn a Delhi high court decision that had denied her plea for information about a decision made by the Collegium at a meeting on December 12, 2018, under the provisions of the Right to Information Act. 

Rejecting the request, the bench stated that from the subsequent resolution passed on January 10, 2019, it appeared that no final decision was taken during the December 12, 2018 meeting.