HC reserves order on plea seeking SC Collegium meeting details

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court reserved its order in a plea that sought a copy of details of the agenda of the Supreme Court (SC) collegium meeting that took place on December 12, 2018, regarding the appointment of judges in the top Court. On Monday, the HC judge Justice Yashwant Varma reserved the Court's order, hearing a petition that challenged a Central Information Commission's refusal to reveal details on an RTI about the information on the meeting, which was not made public yet, IANS reported.

The petitioner Anjali Bharadwaj had filed the RTI application on February 26, 2019, but she was informed that the sought information was held to be not proper by the First Appellate (FAA); therefore not relevant.

Bharadwaj's plea referred to former SC judge Madan Lokur's disappointment of not making the December 12, 2018, collegium resolution- to elevate Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Rajendra Menon to the SC- not public.

Further, against the December 12, 2018, decision, the Collegium later recommended the elevation of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Sanjiv Khanna to SC. This had sparked controversy since the recommendation superseded 32 other judges.

"The then Collegium, on December 12 2018, took certain decisions. However, the required consultation could not be undertaken and completed as the winter vacation of the Court intervened. By the time the Court re-opened, the composition of the Collegium underwent a change. After extensive deliberations on 5th / 6th January 2019, the newly constituted Collegium deemed it appropriate to have a fresh look at the matter and also to consider the proposals in the light of the additional material that became available," the present petition read.