Wary of being seen as sitting in judgment over its own cause, the Supreme Court has decided to challenge before a division bench of the Delhi High Court the historic verdict of a single judge declaring the Chief Justice of India’s office to be under the Right to Information Act.

The decision to go for the normal route of filing the appeal comes after the expiry of the statutory limitation period to challenge the September 2 verdict of Justice S Ravindra Bhat’s single bench that put the Supreme Court on the back foot on the contentious issue.

A senior Supreme Court official said, “In all probability the appeal would be filed on Monday in the Delhi High Court.”

In a letter to Subhash Chandra Agrawal, the RTI activist who first raised the issue before the Central Information Commission, SC Additional Registrar Rajpal Arora said: “An appeal against the judgment of the learned single judge… has been kept ready for filing. But the appeal has not been filed since the Delhi High Court has been on vacation and the registry is closed… The appeal will be filed as soon as we are in a position to do so.