Subject : Justice Chelameswar and Transparency in the judiciary.

5 September, 2016

Justice T.S. Thakur, Chief Justice of India.

Dear Sir, I am writing this letter in the spirit of seeking an improvement in the working of the judiciary, and not as an exercise of criticism. India has not been able to deliver the fruits of democracy as per the aspirations of ‘we the people’. I would submit that the responsibility lies with all the four estates as well as the citizens. One of the attributes on which we have been weak, is in recognizing citizen’s right to information. Despite Parliament passing a RTI Act which rates among the best five (Centre for Law and Democracy) laws as far its provisions are concerned, our rating in implementation is at a poor 66 (The World Justice Project)..

It is well recognized that the first clarion call for transparency was given by Justice Mathew who said: – “The people of this country have a right to know every public act, everything that is done in a public way by their public functionaries. They are entitled to know the particulars of every public transaction in all its bearing. Their right to know, which is derived from the concept of freedom of speech, though not absolute, is a factor which should make one wary when secrecy is claimed for transactions which can at any rate have no repercussion on public security”.

Read more at: http://www.livelaw.in/justice-chelameswar-transparency-judiciary-open-letter-cji/