Supreme Court Rejects RTI Application For Copies Of In-House Inquiry Report & CJI's Letter To President & PM On Justice Yashwant Verma

The Supreme Court recently rejected an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, seeking a copy of the report submitted by the in-house inquiry committee in respect of the allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma and also the letter written by the Chief Justice of India to the President and the Prime Minister while forwarding the said inquiry report to them.

The Central Public Information Officer of the Supreme Court rejected the application, submitted on May 9, by one Amritpal Singh Khalsa, saying that the information cannot be provided in view of the tests outlined in the Supreme Court's judgment in Supreme Court of India Vs. Subhash Chandra Agarwal. Reference was also made to Sections 8(1)(e) and 11(1) of the RTI Act.

As per Section 8(1)(e), information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship is exempted from disclosure unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information. According to Section 11, third-party information is exempted from disclosure.

"The information cannot be provided in view of tests outlined by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in its judgment dated 13.11.2019 passed in Civil Appeal Nos.10044-45/2010 (CPIO, Supreme Court of India Vs. Subhash Chandra Agarwal, (2020) 5 SCC 481) viz. independence of judiciary, proportionality test, fiduciary relationship, invasion of the right to privacy and breach of duty of confidentiality etc. with reference to provisions of Section 8(1)(e) and Section 11(1) of the RTI Act, 2005," said the reply given by Supreme Court Additional Registrar and CPIO on May 21.

On May 8, the then Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna, had forwarded the report submitted by the in-house inquiry committee to the President and the Prime Minister for further action.

It was on March 22 that CJI constituted the committee comprising Justices Sheel Nagu (CJ of P&H HC), Justice GS Sandhawalia (CJ of HP HC) and Justice Anu Sivaraman (Judge of Karnataka HC) , after reports emerged regarding the accidental discovery of a huge stash of cash from a store-room at the out-house of Justice Varma's official residence during a firefighting operation. At the time, Justice Varma was a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court. After the controversy, Justice Varma was transferred to the Allahabad High Court, his parent High Court. Judicial work has been withdrawn from Justice Varma as per the instructions of the CJI.

While the preliminary report of the Delhi High Court Chief Justice and the response of Justice Varma, along with the photos and videos taken by the Delhi Police, were publicised by uploading them on the Supreme Court's website, the final iquiry report was not made public.