TMI Blog2014 (2) TMI 1332X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e a specific stand under the provisions of the Act while dealing with the application of respondent No.4. Instead of rushing to this Court, the petitioner should first deal with the application filed by respondent No.4, which is pending before it. It’s decision will always be subject to judicial scrutiny under the Act. The contention of the petitioner that it is an onerous task and a financial burden to prepare copies of documents to be supplied to the applicant, clearly appears to be unsustainable since the charges are to be paid by the applicant. If the applicant makes a claim that he is below poverty line, the same has to be determined by the appropriate Government in view of the proviso to Section 7(5). Petition dismissed. - WRIT PETITION NO.1305 OF 2011 - - - Dated:- 12-2-2014 - S.C.DHARMADHIKARI AND RAVINDRA V.GHUGE, JJ. MR.P.V.BARDE, ADVOCATE FOR THE PETITIONER. MR.G.K.THIGLE (NAIK), A.G.P., MR.B.L.SAGAR KILLARIKAR, ADVOCATE FOR THE RESPONDENT JUDGMENT (Per Ravindra V.Ghuge, J.) 1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent of the parties. 2. The petitioner has preferred this writ petition under Articles 226 and 227 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sole intention of harassing its office bearers. (c) The petitioner has to furnish information to various authorities like Charity Commissioner, Registrar of Societies and Education Officer, Zilla Parishad. Applications filed by the persons like respondent No.4, caused an undue burden on the petitioner. (d) The proviso to Section 7(5) of the R.T.I. Act is ultravires the Constitution. The petitioner would be unduly burdened by expenditure in supplying voluminous record running into hundreds and thousands of pages to persons unconnected with its Organization. (e) Persons like respondent No.4 are utilizing the provisions of the R.T.I. Act, more in abuse or misuse than in utility or for a good cause. 7. We have heard Mr.Barde, appearing for the petitioner and the learned A.G.P. on behalf of respondent Nos. 1 to 3 and Mr.B.L.Sagar Killarikar for respondent No.5. Respondent No.4, though served, is absent. We have, with the assistance of the learned Advocates, gone through the petition paper book. 8. A long standing need of the Society in garnering information was satisfied by the introduction of the R.T.I. Act, 2005. The said Act gave a right to an individual to seek infor ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ation, but not to seek any consequential relief based on such information. 14. Section 4 deals with the obligations of public authorities to maintain the records in the manner provided and publish and disseminate the information in the manner provided. Section 6 deals with requests for obtaining information. It provides that the applicant making a request for information shall not be required to give any reason for requesting the information or any personal details except those that may be necessary for contacting him. 15. Section 8 deals with exemption from disclosure of information and is extracted below in its entirety: 8. Exemption from disclosure of information (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, ( a) information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence ; (b) information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court; ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ormation relating to any occurrence, event or matter which has taken place, occurred or happened twenty years before the date on which any request is made under Section 6 shall be provided to any person making a request under that section: Provided that where any question arises as to the date from which the said period of twenty years has to be computed, the decision of the Central Government shall be final, subject to the usual appeals provided for in this Act. (emphasis supplied) 16. Section 9 provides that without prejudice to the provisions of Section 8, a request for information may be rejected if such a request for providing access would involve an infringement of copyright. Section 10 deals with severability of exempted information and subsection (1) thereof is extracted below: 10 Severability (1) Where a request for access to information is rejected on the ground that it is in relation to information which is exempt from disclosure, then, notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, access may be provided to that part of the record which does not contain any information which is exempt from disclosure under this Act and which can reasonably be severed from ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government; (i) record includes (a) any document, manuscript and file; (b) any microfilm, microfiche and facsimile copy of a document; (c) any reproduction of image or images embodied in such microfilm (whether enlarged or not); and (d) any other material produced by a computer or any other device; (j) right to information means the right to information accessible under this Act which is held by or under the control of any public authority and includes the right to (i) inspection of work, documents, records; (ii) taking notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records; (iii) taking certified samples of material; (iv) obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through printouts where such information is stored in a computer or in any other device. 19. Section 22 provides for the Act to have overriding effect and is extracted below: 22. Act to have overriding effect The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (19 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... g others. When a candidate participates in an examination and writes his answers in an answer book and submits it to the examining body for evaluation and declaration of the result, the answer book is a document or record. When the answer book is evaluated by an examiner appointed by the examining body, the evaluated answer book becomes a record containing the opinion of the examiner. Therefore, the evaluated answer book is also an information under the R.T.I. Act. 24. Section 3 of the R.T.I. Act provides that subject to the provisions of this Act all the citizens shall have the right to information. The term right to information is defined in Section 2(j) as the right to information accessible under the Act which is held by or under the control of any public authority. Having regard to Section 3, the citizens have the right to access to all the information held by or under the control of any public authority except those excluded or exempted under the Act. The object of the Act is to empower the citizens to fight against corruption and hold the Government and their instrumentalities accountable to the citizens, by providing them access to information regarding functioning ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uthority (that is all information other than those falling under clauses (b) and (c) of section 4(1) of RTI Act). (iii) Information which is not held by or under the control of any public authority and which cannot be accessed by a public authority under any law for the time being in force. Information under the third category does not fall within the scope of RTI Act. Section 3 of RTI Act gives every citizen, the right to information held by or under the control of a public authority, which falls either under the first or second category. In regard to the information falling under the first category, there is also a special responsibility upon public authorities to suo moto publish and disseminate such information so that they will be easily and readily accessible to the public without any need to access them by having recourse to section 6 of RTI Act. There is no such obligation to publish and disseminate the other information which falls under the second category. 62. When trying to ensure that the right to information does not conflict with several other public interests (which includes efficient operations of the governments, preservation of confidentiality of sensi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ds of responsible citizens to fight corruption and to bring in transparency and accountability. The provisions of RTI Act should be enforced strictly and all efforts should be made to bring to light the necessary information under clause (b) of section 4(1) of the Act which relates to securing transparency and accountability in the working of public authorities and in discouraging corruption. But in regard to other information,(that is information other than those enumerated in section 4(1)(b) and (c) of the Act), equal importance and emphasis are given to other public interests (like confidentiality of sensitive information, fidelity and fiduciary relationships, efficient operation of governments, etc.). 67. Indiscriminate and impractical demands or directions under RTI Act for disclosure of all and sundry information (unrelated to transparency and accountability in the functioning of public authorities and eradication of corruption) would be counterproductive as it will adversely affect the efficiency of the administration and result in the executive getting bogged down with the non-productive work of collecting and furnishing information. The Act should not be allowed to b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f India others ( 1997) 4 SCC 306 where it has been held as follows: ;...Sunlight is the best disinfectant. But it is equally important to be alive to the dangers that lie ahead. It is important to realize that undue popular pressure brought to bear on decision makers in Government can have frightening side-effects. If every action taken by the political or executive functionary is transformed into a public controversy and made subject to an enquiry to soothe popular sentiments, it will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on the independence of the decision maker who may find it safer not to take any decision. It will paralyse the entire system and bring it to a grinding halt. So we have two conflicting situations almost enigmatic and we think the answer is to maintain a fine balance which would serve public interest. 25. It is quite interesting to note that even though under Section 3 of the Act right of all citizens, to receive information, is statutorily recognised but Section 6 gives the said right to any person. Therefore, Section 6, in a sense, is wider in its ambit than Section 3. 10. In the case of Public Information Officer and another Vs. Manohar Parrikar a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 1) Bom.C.R.32, it is held that, As per section 3 of the Act, subject to the provisions therein, all citizens shall have the right to information. Section 6(1) of the Act states that a person, who desires to obtain any information under the Act, shall make a request in writing or through electronic means specifying the particulars of the information sought by him/her. Subsection (2) of section 6 of the Act states that an applicant making request for information shall not be required to give any reason for requesting the information or any other personal details except those that may be necessary for contacting him. It is thus clear that while entertaining an application for information made under the Act, the locus standi or the intention of the applicant cannot be questioned and is required to furnish all the information sought by him except what has been exempted under section 8 therein. 12. Having considered the submissions of the petitioner and in the light of the observations of the Apex Court and our Court in the judgments referred above (supra), we are unable to accept the contentions of the petitioner for reasons more than one. Firstly, that the petitioner has rushed ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nly exception carved out is that no fee shall be charged from a person who is below poverty line. 18. The contention of the petitioner that it is an onerous task and a financial burden to prepare copies of documents to be supplied to the applicant, clearly appears to be unsustainable since the charges are to be paid by the applicant. If the applicant makes a claim that he is below poverty line, the same has to be determined by the appropriate Government in view of the proviso to Section 7(5). As such, this argument appears to be highly feeble and we find that it does not deserve any consideration. The said contention and the challenge to the proviso to Section 7(5) at the behest of the petitioner in the above circumstances is, therefore, required to be turned down. 19. Moreover, Section 4 of the R.T.I. Act casts certain obligations on Public Authorities. Section 4 reads as under : 4. Obligations of public authorities : 1. Every public authority shall- a. maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilitates the right to information under this Act and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerised are, within a r ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... year; c. publish all relevant facts while formulating important policies or announcing the decisions which affect public; d. provide reasons for its administrative or quasijudicial decisions to affected persons. 2. It shall be a constant endeavour of every public authority to take steps in accordance with the requirements of clause (b) of subsection (1) to provide as much information suo motu to the public at regular intervals through various means of communications, including internet, so that the public have minimum resort to the use of this Act to obtain information. 3. For the purposes of subsection (1), every information shall be disseminated widely and in such form and manner which is easily accessible to the public. 4. All materials shall be disseminated taking into consideration the cost effectiveness, local language and the most effective method of communication in that local area and the information should be easily accessible, to the extent possible in electronic format with the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, available free or at such cost of the medium or the print cost price as may be prescrib ..... 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