Disclose action taken on complaint against ex-CJI: CIC to SC

The Central Information Commission today directed the Supreme Court and the Law Ministry to disclose action taken on a complaint against former Chief Justice of India Altmas Kabir in 2013.
The transparency panel also asked the Law Ministry to disclose what action has been taken in the matter related to alleged leak of a judgement which was posted on a private website before it was delivered by him.
Deciding the plea of RTI activist Subhash Agrawal, Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu also asked Central Public Information Officer of the Supreme Court to furnish details of the number of complaints rejected or accepted against the judges.

"The Commission directs the CPIO of Supreme Court to inform appellant, the action or follow up, on the representation dated May 6, 2013 of M Furquan regarding Justice Altamas Kabir, former CJI, which was forwarded to PPS of the CJI on March 27, 2013," Acharyulu said.
In his order, Acharyulu said there is no system for redressal of grievances in any court of India, and no mechanism to receive complaints against judiciary.
He said a comprehensive mechanism needs to be put in place to ensure both answerability and access to information about administration of justice without compromising the basic constitutional character of the independence of Judiciary.

"The Union Ministry of Law and Justice is expected to inform the appellant/citizen and the Commission, what is possible time required to introduce grievance-redressal system in the high courts and the Supreme Court," he said.

Agrawal had sought copies of complaints received at the Union Law Ministry against Kabir dated May 25, 2013 by former Justice V R Krishna Iyer, and complaint from M Furquan as forwarded from the President's Secretariat as referred in some news report.
He had also sought to know the action taken related to probe into leak of the Supreme Court verdict dated July 18, 2013 in the matter of "Christian Medical College, Vellore vs Union of India", on a private website several hours before its pronouncement in the court.

Agrawal had claimed that the matter was also brought before Chief Justice of India Justice P Sathasivam as per news report dated July 23, 2013.