Court vacation is no excuse to delay RTI query: CIC

Every June, litigants might well be resigned to their cases invariably getting delayed due to a monthlong vacation in the Delhi High Court, but India’s top information watchdog has taken a dim view of this colonial tradition.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has said there is no law that allows courts to give up their obligation under the Right to Information Act even if on vacation. CIC’s disapproval came on HC’s failure to furnish an RTI response to an applicant on the ground that staff is lean owing to vacations.

‘‘The Commission finds it difficult to accept that any public authority can claim vacation from RTI for one month which is not provided for in law,’’ information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi noted in a recent decision.

CIC was hearing an RTI appeal filed by Rakesh Agarwal, whose application before HC in January this year had sought a copy of ‘Delhi Petty Offences Rules’ and bio-data coupled with other details of special metropolitan magistrates posted by HC to main traffic courts in the capital.

While a copy of the rules was supplied by P S Chaggar, HC’s public information officer, he refused to disclose information on the second part concerning magistrates. Invoking rule 5 (B) of Delhi High Court (RTI) Rules, the PIO maintained this would cause ‘‘unwarranted invasion of privacy of the magistrates.’’ This made Agarwal move CIC in appeal because the first appellate authority within HC didn’t respond to his first appeal.

In CIC, Chaggar also relied upon the confidentiality clause of the parent RTI Act 2005 to argue that information like residential addresses of the magistrates couldn’t be disclosed as it is personal information.

Agarwal then agreed before CIC to scale down his demand and limit it to file notings and correspondence based on which appointment of magistrates was done by High Court. The commission then asked Chaggar to prepare its reply and furnish it to Agarwal, only to be told by the PIO that since court is on vacation during June, there is skeletal staff present in concerned branches from where information has to be collated.

Though CIC made its unhappiness known, it relented by extending the deadline for supplying information to Agarwal till July 15.
Source:- The Times of India 21 June 2009 P. 6 Delhi

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