RTI will affect independence of judiciary: Attorney General KK Venugopal

New Delhi: Disclosure of information under Right to Information Act about judicial appointments, transfers of Supreme Court judges would amount to interference in judicial independence, asserted Attorney General K.K. Venugopal in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The AG appearing for the Secretary General of the apex court made this submission before a five judge Constitution bench comprising the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices N.V. Ramana, D.Y. Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna hearing an appeal whether such information could be disclosed or not.

The Supreme Court’s appeal in 2010 was against a CIC order, directing the Chief Justice of India’s office to disclose details of correspondence between the Collegium and the government on the appointment of three Supreme Court judges under the RTI Act. The AG maintained that the information sought would interfere with the independence of judiciary.