Withhold complaint of ex-Guj HC Chief Justice against then CJI: CIC

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has refused to disclose a letter by a former Gujarat high court Chief Justice to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, complaining against former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice Altamus Kabir. 

The PMO denied the information on the ground that the matter was related to third party information and could not be disclosed.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) dismissed the plea of Devesh Aniruddhabhai Bhatt, an inmate of the Ahmedabad Central Jail, who had sought copies of the letter written by the then Gujarat high court Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya to Singh complaining against Kabir. 

Bhatt had also sought the copy of the letter forwarded by the PMO to the Supreme Court or Ministry of Law and Justice and certified copy of Prime Minister’s order on the letter.Before the CIC, the PMO claimed that the matter was related to third party information and cannot be disclosed.