New Delhi (The Hawk): On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected a request for information on a collegium meeting where decisions were made regarding the elevation of justices to the top court under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
"Only a resolution drafted and signed by all the collegium members can be regarded to be the final decision," a bench led by Justice M.R. Shah ruled.
"It is to be noted that final decisions are taken by the collegium by the only after due consultation and during the consultation some decision takes place, but no final decision is taken and no resolution is drawn, it cannot be said that a final decision is taken by the collegium," the bench continued.
The bench stated that the "collegium is a multi-member body whose decision embodies into the resolution that may be properly put up and signed...," adding that only the final judgement had to be posted on the Supreme Court's website.
It further stated that, even in accordance with the RTI Act, nothing discussed in the collegium had to be made public.
Anjali Bhardwaj, an activist, filed a petition with the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's decision to deny her request for the agenda of the Apex Court Collegium for a meeting held on December 12, 2018, during which decisions were allegedly made regarding the elevation of some judges to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court poked fun at retired justices on December 2 by declaring that "the current collegium system should not be derailed on the basis of words of some busybody" and that "it has become a vogue for them to comment about past decisions issued by the collegium." The collegium was acknowledged as being the most transparent institution by the supreme court.
The bench declared that it did not wish to comment on what a few former members of the Supreme Court Collegium, who were also judges on the top court, were now saying about the system.
Justice Madan Lokur, a former member of the Supreme Court Collegium who served in 2018, according to attorney Prashant Bhushan, stated that one of the judgements should have been posted on the Supreme Court website. Justice Bhardwaj is a petitioner and an RTI campaigner.
"Today, it has become fashionable to comment upon past decisions (of the collegium) taken when they (former judges) were members of the collegium," the panel declared. We don't want to remark on their statements, it continued.
The collegium, which included the four seniormost judges Justices Lokur, A.K. Sikri, S.A. Bobde, and N.V., was presided over by then Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. Regarding the selection of judges, Ramana made some decisions. Details, however, were not posted on the website. The decisions were reviewed by the collegium in January 2019 "in the light of further materials."
(Inputs from Agencies)