Should chief justice come under RTI?

The question whether the Chief Justice of India should come under the Right to Information Act is once again being raised. To many, India's highest legal officer is just as accountable as any other citizen in the country.However, the Chief Justice of India K J Balakrishnan says he does not come under the Right to Information Act.There has been a growing demand to make judges accountable and a law to this effect is pending in Parliament but the chief justice decided to stay clear of the issue until it is passed in Parliament.It's not often that the Chief Justice of India faces questions on the accountability of the judiciary.He's not answerable to Parliament, but at a conference of the chief ministers and chief justices the CJI was asked some tough questions, ranging from the in-house mechanism of looking into allegations of corruption against judges to whether his fellow judges should declare their assets and liabilities.The government plans to bring in a law to make the higher judiciary more accountable but the chief justice refused to comment on it.However, he did say that the Chief Justice of India should be kept out of the purview of the Right to Information Act.''The CJI is not accountable, I am a constitutional authority and cannot answer these questions,'' said Justice K J Balakrishnan, Chief Justice of India.The judges want a pay hike but wouldn't ask for it. They say it will come in due course but until then, they have asked high court judges to work an extra half hour to clear the backlog of cases.
Sunil Prabhu
Saturday, April 19, 2008 (New Delhi)
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