Madras HC’s PIO refuses to disclose names of judges who had not disclosed their assets voluntarily

Tells an RTI applicant that the information relates to internal administration of the High Court Registry and hence it cannot be disclosed as per an April 17, 2013 Division Bench judgment

The Madras High Court’s Public Information Officer (PIO) has refused to furnish names of judges who had disclosed their assets voluntarily in accordance with a resolution passed by the Full Court (a body comprising all judges of the court) on September 3, 2009 and those who had not done so.

Replying to an application made by Coimbatore based advocate M. Loganathan under the Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005, the PIO said: “The information requested by you is purely within the internal administration of the Registry. Hence, information sought for by you cannot be furnished.”

The officer also relied upon a judgment passed by a Division Bench of Justice Elipe Dharma Rao (since dead) and Justice M. Venugopal (since retired) on April 17, 2013 to contend that any information related to internal administration of the High Court need not be disclosed under the RTI Act.

The applicant had sought the details since the assets of only eight out of 53 judges (working strength) of the High Court had been made public at present. Therefore, he wanted to know the names of judges who had submitted details of their assets with the Registry till 2022 and those who had not submitted them.

He also wanted to know whether the High Court Registry had issued any circulars to the judges with regard to the 2009 Full Court resolution. However, the PIO refused to answer any of the applicant’s queries and simply informed him of his right to approach the Registrar General, the first appellate authority.

In February this year too, the High Court’s PIO had rejected yet another RTI application made by the same lawyer seeking details of all trial court judges who had been suspended from service by the High Court between 2010 and 2021 pending inquiry into various charges levelled against them.