A controversy emerged when the Supreme Court and High Courts refused to provide information sought under the Right to Information (RTI) act. Under the RTI act the judges were asked to declare their assets. However they were reluctant to provide that information. The Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan tried to defend his stance by saying that the judges of Supreme Court regularly declare their assets to him, however this information is kept confidential.

The issue was first brought to light by Ram Jethmalani who called for declaration of assets amongst the judges for greater transparency in judicial functioning. The Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee backed this by stating that RTI should apply to all public servants.
The chief Justice’s stance is that the constitutional functionaries are not covered under the RTI Act and that Supreme court judges are constitutional functionaries.

The Chief information commissioner Mr Wajahat Habibullah however mentioned that all constitutional authorities are covered under the RTI act.There is a consideration to have some security and sensitive information to be immune under the RTI law. Supreme Court also wants to be included in this list.