TRANSPARENCY AS THE HANDMAID OF INDEPENDENCE

Some judgments do more than settle a dispute. They make an institution turn its gaze upon itself. CPIO, Supreme Court of India v. Subhash Chandra Agarwal decided by a Constitution Bench on 13 November 2019, is one such judgment. Framed narrowly, it asked what categories of information held by the Supreme Court's Registry fall within the Right to Information Act, 2005. Framed substantively, it asked whether the constitutional value of judicial independence can coexist with the democratic demand for transparency and categorically answered that it must.