RIGHT TO INFORMATION (r2i)

RTI plea seeking details of Supreme Court Collegium’s December, 2018 meeting rejected By CIC1
 

Brief facts
This RTI application had sought information about the Supreme Court Collegium meeting held on 12th December, 2018. At that meeting, the then collegium, comprising the then Chief Justice of India Justice Gogoi and four senior-most Judges, viz. Mr. Justice Madan B. Lokur, Mr. Justice A.K Sikri, Mr. Justice S.A Bobde and Mr. Justice N.V Ramana, took certain decisions regarding the appointment of judges. However, the decisions / details of the meeting were not uploaded on the Supreme Court website and in a subsequent meeting the decisions were overturned, it was claimed by RTI activist and the appellant, Ms Anjali Bhardwaj

Contentions of the appellant
This RTI application and second appeal had been filed in the larger public interest.

Disclosure of information is necessary since the decisions taken at the meeting of 12th December, 2018 were subsequently overturned after the change of composition of the Collegium; even if no resolution was passed, the agenda and decision of the meeting should be disclosed.

Section 8 of the RTI Act was not considered by the CPIO prior to denial of information which was done on the vague grounds that the matter of appointment of the Hon’ble Judges is a matter of judicial proceedings that are at present subjudice before the Supreme Court. However, the RTI Act does not allow for denial of information on such vague grounds.

The information sought in the present RTI application is completely different from the type of information that is sought in cases that are subjudice.

Decision
‘On perusal of the resolution dated 10.01.2019 it is clear that the agenda for the meeting dated 12.12.2018 has been mentioned therein which answers point No. 1 of the instant RTI application. With regard to the remaining points, the Commission concurs with the order of the FAA dated 23.04.2019 and holds that in the absence of any resolution passed in the meeting dated 12.12.2018, no available information as per Section 2 (f) exists on record which can be disclosed to the Appellant. Furthermore, the final outcome of the fate of the meeting dated 12.12.2018 has been discussed in the resolution dated 10.01.2019. Hence, no further intervention of the Commission is required in the instant Second Appeal which is disposed of accordingly.’

Background and basic understanding
At the International level, Right to Information and its aspects find articulation as a human right in the most important basic human rights documents, namely, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. At regional levels, there are numerous other human rights documents which include this fundamental right, for example, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the American Convention on Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, etc. The Commonwealth has also formulated principles on freedom of information.

The Indian Parliament had enacted the ‘Freedom of Information Act, 2002’ in order to promote transparency and accountability in administration. The National Common Minimum Programme of the Government envisaged that ‘Freedom of Information Act’ will be made more ‘progressive, participatory and meaningful’, following which, a decision was taken to repeal the ‘Freedom of Information Act, 2002’ and enact a new legislation in its place. Accordingly, the ‘Right to Information Bill, 2004’ (RTI) was passed by both the Houses of Parliament in May, 2005 and which received the assent of the President of India on 15th June, 2005. ‘The Right to Information Act’ was Notified in the Gazette of India on 21st June, 2005. The ‘The Right to Information Act’ became fully operational from 12th October, 2005.

This law empowers Indian citizens to seek any accessible information from a public authority and makes the Government and its functionaries more accountable and responsible. The Right to Information Act, 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests for Government information.

Objective of the Right to Information Act
The basic object of the Right to Information Act is to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, contain corruption and make our democracy work for the people in the real sense. It goes without saying that an informed citizen is better equipped to keep necessary vigil on the instruments of governance and make the Government more accountable to the governed. The Act is a big step towards making the citizens informed about the activities of the Government.

What is information?
Information is any material in any form. It includes records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and so on. It also includes information relating to any private body which can be accessed by the public authority under any law for the time being in force.

What is a public authority?
A ‘public authority’ is any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted by or under the Constitution; or by any other law made by the Parliament or a State Legislature; or by notification issued or order made by the Central Government or a State Government. The bodies owned, controlled or substantially financed by the Central Government or a State Government and non-Government organisations substantially financed by the Central Government or a State Government also fall within the definition of public authority. The financing of the body or the NGO by the Government may be direct or indirect.

More than 32,000 RTI appeals pending with Central Information Commission: Centre2
On 16th December, 2021, in a written reply, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said there was a pendency of 35,178 and 38,116 RTI appeals during 2019-20 and 2020-21, respectively. A total of 32,147 RTI appeals were pending in 2021-22, as on 6th December, 2021.

The Government has taken several steps like capacity building through training and issuance of guidelines for Public Information Officers and First Appellate Authorities so as to enable them to supply information / dispose of first appeals effectively, resulting in less number of appeals to the Information Commission. The Government has also issued clarificatory orders impressing upon the public authorities to disclose maximum information proactively so that citizens need not resort to filing of Right to Information (RTI) applications to access information available with the public authorities, Mr. Singh added.

Denial of information by SoI on AP-Karnataka border demarcation raises eyebrows3
In reply to applications filed under the Right to Information Act by Ballari-based miner and activist Tapal Ganesh, who had been questioning the survey methodology, the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Geo-Spatial Data Center (AP&T GDC), the Survey of India, Hyderabad, has declared that the details sought are ‘classified information covered under section 8(1)(a) of RTI Act, 2005, and cannot be supplied.’

The information sought included the proceedings of survey and demarcation, survey sketch / map, survey DGP survey readings with altitude level of each survey (boundary) point, drone survey, objection for the survey, if any, and maps showing the contours and stream levels in the geo-coded Ballari Reserve Forest Map of 1896. The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) refused to disclose the information by declaring it as classified under section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act. Mr. Ganesh approached the appellant authority which, on 10th December 2021, upheld the CPIO’s decision.

Gujarat Government launches online RTI portal
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel launched an online Right to Information (RTI) portal enabling online filing of RTI applications by citizens. This is in accordance with two Public Interest Litigations of 2018 and 2019, respectively, before the Gujarat High Court seeking implementation of online filing of RTI applications. The portal at which one can file applications online is https://onlinerti.gujarat.gov.in. The Government should also make efforts to get the RTI applications replied to in a timely manner and with proper information sought by the applicant.

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1    https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload/supreme-court-rti-anjali-bhardwaj-20-23-406544.pdf
2    https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/over-32000-rti-appeals-pending-with-central-information-commission-govt/article37969462.ece
3    https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/denial-of-info-by-soi-on-border-demarcation-raises-eyebrows/article38044961.ece