New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday delivered a Judgement that the office of the Chief Justice of India is a public authority and is covered under the Right to Information Act. The Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi pronounced the verdict on Wednesday.    

   Supreme Court said that discloser of any information sought will have to be balanced with the independence of Judiciary, which itself is a matter of public interest. Upholding a 2010, Delhi High Court verdict, the five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi cautioned that the RTI cannot be used as a tool of surveillance and held the Judiciary independence and have right to privacy have to be kept in mind while dealing with transparency. On whether the deliberations of the Supreme Court Collegium comprising five senior most judges in the appointment of judges or lawyers will be made public, the top Court ruled that it should be decided on a case-to-case basis keeping in mind the larger public interest. The bench said that only the names of the judges recommended by the Collegium for the appointment can be disclosed, not the reasons. Transparency and openness in Judicial appointments juxtaposed with confidentially of deliberations remained one of the most delicate and complex areas.  

   Beside CJI Gogoi, other judges on the bench included Justice N.V. Ramana, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjeev Khanna. While the CJI and Justices Gupta and Khanna wrote on Judgement, Justices Ramana and Chandrachud have written separate verdicts.