National

It’s debatable: Balakrishnan

New Delhi: Amid a controversy over bringing even the judiciary under the purview of the Right to Information Act, Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan on Saturday said the question was “debatable.”

“It’s all debatable,” he told NDTV in response to questions on the view of a parliamentary standing committee that barring judicial decision-making, the judges are accountable under the RTI Act.

The Chief Justice, however, acknowledged that judges were “public servants.” Earlier, he had said judges being constitutional authorities were not covered under the RTI Act.

In recent times there has been a concerted demand including from jurists that judges be covered under the Act. It followed the rejection of an RTI applicant’s query by the Supreme Court registry on disclosure of assets by members of the higher judiciary. — PTI

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu