The Supreme Court’s decision on the office of the chief justice of India (CJI) coming under the purview of RTI Act should be respected, Central Information Commission chief Wajahat Habibullah has said.
“After all, it is the Supreme Court. We have to respect what it says. We should not assume that the court will decide against the spirit of the Act,” he said on Saturday, while speaking at a forum in Delhi organised by the YP Foundation.
Last week the apex court challenged a Delhi High Court order that the office of the CJI is a public authority covered by the RTI Act.
According to the appeal filed by the secretary general of the Supreme Court, the impugned judgment will have far reaching consequences for the independence of the Supreme Court.
Speaking on the subject, “Improving the efficiency of public authorities through RTI Applications”, Habibullah said that Section 4 was the most important section of the RTI Act.
As per the section, the government offices across the country have to voluntarily disclose basic information about their functioning.
“We are still following archaic ways of preserving our records. This is proving a hindrance in the implementation of section 4 which calls which calls for computerisation for all the documents,” said he.