Recent Judgement

Recently, the Supreme Court declined to interfere with a judgement made by Delhi High Court seeking information under RTI Act relating to the details of the medical facilities availed by the individual judges and their family members of the Supreme Court including the information relating to expenses on private treatment in India or abroad.

Briefly, on the refusal of the CPIO and the Appellate Authority denying information in terms of exemption under Sec 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act as being personal information causing unwarranted invasion of privacy, the CIC directed the CPIO to provide the total amount of medical expenses of individual judges reimbursed during the last three years both in India and abroad. The CPIO furnished the actual total medical expenditure for the three years while informing that judge-wise information regarding actual total medical expenditure is not required to be maintained and hence not maintained. On an appeal filed by the RTI applicant, the High Court held that details of medical facilities availed by individual judges would be personal information exempt from disclosure. The medical records/bills would indicate the treatment and/or medicines required by individuals and this would clearly be an invasion of privacy. The information furnished from the budget grant would be sufficient.

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