Supreme Court CPIO Refuses RTI Information About Steps Taken On Complaint Against Justice Hemant Gupta Alleging Disproportionate Assets

The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the Supreme Court of India has refused to disclose information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act on the measures taken by the former Chief Justice of India JS Khehar with regards to a letter he received in 2017 alleging the amassing of disproportionate assets by former Supreme Court judge Justice Hemant Gupta. 

The letter in question was written by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) to the then CJI Khehar alleging that there were serious allegations against Justice Gupta of amassing huge wealth disproportionate to known sources of income. It was further alleged that Justice Gupta was influencing ongoing investigations against his wife for the charges of money laundering, acquiring properties illegally by creating forged agreement to sale, evading stamp duty, filing collusive suits for specific performance, and transacting through shell companies for layering and structuring the transactions. 

On October 25, 2022, Advocate Amritpal Singh Khalsa filed an RTI Application seeking a certified photo copy of action taken on the said letter. The RTI application also asked for name and designation of the officer who handled the representation in the matter. 

However, the CPIO(Ajay Agrawal, Additional Registrar), while replying to the application stated that the information sought by the applicant could not be provided in view of the tests outlined in the Supreme Court's judgment in CPIO, Supreme Court of India v. Subhash Chandra Agrawal. The said judgement is pertaining to the independence of judiciary, proportionality, fiduciary relationship, invasion of right to privacy, and breach of duty of confidentiality.

As per the reply, the information sought was also third party information in view of Sections 8 (1) (e) & (j) and 11 (1) of the RTI Act. The CPIO has provided that the applicant has the option of appealing to the First Appellate Authority against this reply within 30 days of the receipt of the reply.