NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on a petition seeking that the office of the Chief Justice of India and chief justices of high courts be brought within the ambit of RTI Act to make them divulge information on appointment of judges, their assets and various administrative decisions, including communication with governments.

A five-judge bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices N V Ramana, D Y Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna wrapped up hearing on a plea filed by the Supreme Court administration challenging the Delhi high court order holding that the CJI's office came under the ambit of the Right to Information Act.

Appearing for RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agarwal, advocate Prashant Bhushan said courts had passed a slew of directions to infuse transparency in the functioning of various institutions by directing them to reveal information and asked why the judiciary was shying away from bringing transparency in its own functioning. Referring to various judgements including the NJAC verdict, Bhushan said the present system was opaque and needed to be made transparent.

"Every step to bring transparency will increase people's confidence in the judiciary and will enhance its credibility," Bhushan said. The CJI said there was no denying that there should be transparency but there was a need for balance.

