HC reserves order on plea on med reimbursement of SC judges

Delhi High Court today reserved verdict on a plea moved by an RTI applicant challenging the single-judge order exempting medical reimbursements of Supreme Court judges from disclosure under the Right to Information Act.
"Heard both the party. Order reserved," said a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Deepa Sharma, as it expressed the view that disclosure of medical reimbursement data would not serve any public interest.
The petition has sought setting aside of the High Court's December 19 last year's order of a single judge who had held that disclosure of the medical reimbursements would not serve public interest and was thus exempt from the Act's purview.

The judge had held that the information sought was of a personal nature and the Central Information Commission's (CIC) order was "erroneous".
The petitioner, Subhash Chandra Agarwal, contended that "salaries, pensions and allowances payable to or in respect of judges of Supreme Court are to be charged under Consolidated Fund of India", as per the Constitution.
"Therefore, source of reimbursement money of the medical bills of Supreme Court judges comes from the hard-earned money of citizens as taxpayers," advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for Agarwal, said.

Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Supreme Court registry, opposed Bhushan's contention, saying the information sought is not in the public interest.

Bhushan had contended that "information pertaining to expenditure of public money on public servants cannot be exempted from disclosure under RTI".
He said he had not sought information regarding the illness or medical treatment of the judges, but only the amount spent on the same.
He also sought an order directing the apex court registry to comply with the CIC's February 2012 order directing them to provide the information.