Uttarakhand’s state information commission (SIC) has ordered the high court to provide details under the Right to Information Act (RTI) regarding complaints and disciplinary action against judicial officers in subordinate courts.
The order came after a hearing held recently in which senior Indian Forest Service officer, Sanjiv Chaturvedi’s plea challenged the denial of such data by the high court on grounds of confidentiality and third-party concerns. The officer, currently posted in Haldwani, had sought the information in May, 2023.
Chief information commissioner Radha Raturi directed the joint registrar of Uttarakhand high court to furnish the required data after due permission received from the competent authority.
Chaturvedi, known as an anti-corruption crusader whistleblower, had sought information about the name of the competent authority before whom complaints of corruption or misconduct against subordinate judges can be submitted and the total number of such complaints from January 2020 to April 2025. While the public information officer (PIO) replied to Chaturvedi’s request in June 2023, but the entire information was not provided.
Upon being granted no relief from the first appellate authority, the SIC, during the hearing, ruled that the number of such cases should be shared after taking due permission from the competent authority.
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Chaturvedi’s lawyer, Sudershan Goel, welcomed the SIC order, saying they were compelled to file the application in view of the number of illegitimate orders and practices encountered by them.
“Applications filed by us before lower courts were adjudicated by way of erroneous recording of our presence, copies of pending criminal proceedings filed by us were supplied to third parties to our detriment, and various laws settled by the apex court in this regard were completely ignored,” he said.
Terming the latest decision by the SIC a “landmark”, Goel said it will help bring in more transparency in the functioning of district-level judiciary. Citing a recent instance, the lawyer said an order was passed declining registration of an FIR wherein a false complaint was made, with fake signatures, to tarnish the reputation of Chaturvedi, which was wholly against basic canons of criminal jurisprudence, and compelled them to seek relevant data about district-level judges.
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