‘No appeal yet against high court ruling on CJI’s office’

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court registry Saturday said that it was yet to file an appeal challenging the Delhi High Court’s Jan 12 ruling declaring the office of the chief justice of India within the ambit of the Right to Information Act.

Asked about news reports claiming that the apex court has already challenged before itself the high court’s ruling, apex court Secretary General M.P. Bhadran told IANS: “I do not from where do they got all this wrong information.”

“I’m the party in the case (the person entitled to challenge this judgement on behalf of the CJI’s office), and I’m yet to file any appeal,” he said.

“We are not even in any hurry as the Delhi High Court has given us 60 days to challenge its ruling,” said Bhadran, adding: “We have not even decided whether to challenge it at all.”

“No full court meeting (of all the apex court judges) has taken place to decide the issue,” he said

Supreme Court Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan had told reporters earlier that the issue of whether or not to appeal agaist the high court ruling would be decided by a full bench of the apex court.

Attorney General Goolam E. Vahanvati too expressed surprise at the report by a news agency that the apex court has already filed an appeal before itself against the high court’s ruling.

“The Supreme Court is yet to communicate its decision to me on the question of filing an appeal on the issue,” he said.

“So where is the question of filing the appeal?” the country’s top law officer asked.