By Khabar Rojana The Uttarakhand State Information Commission has directed the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the Uttarakhand High Court to provide aggregate data on complaints and disciplinary proceedings against trial court judges under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.
Chief Information Commissioner Radha Raturi passed the order while hearing a second appeal filed by RTI applicant Sanjiv Chaturvedi, a 2002-batch Indian Forest Service officer currently posted in Haldwani. Chaturvedi had sought details on the number of complaints filed against subordinate judiciary judges between January 1, 2020, and April 15, 2025, along with information on disciplinary or criminal action taken.
The High Court’s PIO had earlier denied full disclosure citing confidentiality and institutional sensitivity. The first appeal was dismissed, prompting Chaturvedi to approach the State Information Commission.
During the hearing, Chaturvedi argued that the RTI Act flows from Article 19 of the Constitution and denying statistical information violated his fundamental rights. He clarified that he was only seeking anonymised and aggregated data, not personal details.
The commission observed that while individual complaint files cannot be disclosed, anonymised numerical data does not fall under RTI exemptions. It ruled that transparency and accountability are essential but must be balanced with judicial independence.
The commission directed the PIO to obtain approval from the competent authority and provide aggregate data on total complaints and cases where disciplinary or criminal action was recommended, without revealing identities or sensitive information, within one month.
Shalu Shalu