The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to direct the Centre to make public Rahul Gandhi’s dissent notes on the appointments of the central information commissioner and eight other information commissioners.

“We will not go into that aspect. There is no question of holding a trial here,” a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant told advocate Prashant Bhushan during the brief hearing of a petition flagging large-scale vacancies in the Central Information Commission (CIC) and State Information Commissions (SICs).

Leader of the Opposition Rahul, a member of the selection committee, had submitted a dissent note after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah on some of the CIC appointments in December.

Bhushan on Tuesday argued people had a right to know the reasons behind the Opposition leader’s dissent. However, the bench declined the plea, saying the court could not be expected to assume that the government would appoint “unqualified” people.

The CJI said appointments running afoul of the RTI Act should be challenged separately, as the current petition’s remit was the vacancies in the CIC and the SICs.