Tax Management India. Com
Law and Practice  :  Digital eBook
Research is most exciting & rewarding


  TMI - Tax Management India. Com
Follow us:
  Facebook   Twitter   Linkedin   Telegram

TMI Blog

Home

2011 (1) TMI 1246

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

→ Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

..... nullify the aims and objects of the Act. Therefore, the contrary arguments of the learned counsel for the petitioner “stricto sensu” deserve to be and are hereby repelled under the present set of circumstances. - information under TRI to be provided - Decided against the petitioner. - C.W.P. No. 15964 of 2010 (O&M) - - - Dated:- 6-1-2011 - Mehinder Singh Sullar, J. Shri Subhash Ahuja, Advocate, for the Petitioner. ORDER The matrix of the facts, which needs a necessary mention for a limited purpose of deciding the core controversy involved in the instant writ petition and emanating from the record, is that petitioner-D.P. Jangra was posted as District Food and Supplies Controller, Yamuna Nagar. Shamsher Singh (respondent No. 5) son of Kathu Ram sought information under The Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereinafter to be referred as the Act ), relating to the expenditure, movable and immovable properties of the petitioner, vide application dated 18-1-2010. He has also sought copies of the permissions obtained by the petitioner to purchase/sell the property. The same were not supplied to him by the State Public Information Officer (for short the SPIO ). Dissatisfied .....

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

→ Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

..... ccasions in the hearing before Commission. The corruption in respondent-department could be more pronounced due to its interaction with general public and more so with BPL population. We should attempt to reduce if not totally eliminate the source of corruption from our Society. India is at position No. 134 on the UN Human Development Index since 1994 despite a 15 times increase in budget allocation over this period for social sector and poverty alleviation programmes by the Government. It is hereby directed that the respondent/public authority i.e. The Director Food Supplies Deptt. could consider obtaining the details of movable; immovable assets of all employees in respondent-department/public authority starting from the level of sub inspector in the field offices and details should be accessible to the general public on the website of respondents/public authority. RTI Act seeks to make those who govern accountable to the governed and also seeks to reduce corruption in our system. It is expected that corruption will be considerably reduced in the system if proposed details of assets of individuals are available to the general public on website as very few officials would like .....

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

→ Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

..... not. 9. Having regard to the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner, to my mind, the indicated informations sought by the private respondent, do not squarely fall within the ambit of exemption clause, as envisaged under Section 8(e)(j) of the Act. 10. At the very outset, the basic purpose, aims and objects of the Act have to be kept into focus, while deciding the present controversy. The Act was enacted in order to ensure smoother and deep access to information and provides an effective framework for effecting the right to information, recognised under Article 19 of the Constitution of India. 11. Section 8 of the Act is as under :- Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, --- (a) xx xx xx xx (b) xx xx xx xx (c) xx xx xx xx (d) xx xx xx xx (e) Information available to a person, in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information (f) xx .....

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

→ Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

..... viso to Section 8 of the Act envisaged that the information, which cannot be denied to the Parliament or the State Legislature, shall not be denied to any person. 16. A co-joint reading of the aforesaid provisions would reveal, only that information is exempted, the disclosure of which, has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual, unless the authorities are satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information. Meaning thereby, as all the essential ingredients of exemption clause are totally lacking, therefore, the petitioner cannot claim its exemption. The information contained in the property statement has direct relationship with the public employment of the petitioner and cannot possibly be termed as unwarranted invasion of his privacy. Therefore, to my mind, the information sought by the respondent with regard to the sanctions, expenditure, movable and immovable properties of the petitioner, cannot possibly be termed to be exempted information, as escalated under Section 8(e)(j) of the Act, particularly when, what is not disputed here is that the petitioner .....

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

→ Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

..... supplied) Thus, the aforesaid informations were demanded by the original applicant i.e. Rasiklal Mardia. These informations were pertaining to the petitioner-company and its group companies. 18. On the peculiar facts and circumstances, it was observed in that case that time-bound schedule given under the Act, will not oust a right of hearing, vested in a third-party before imparting the information, the authorities are required to satisfy about the credentials of the applicant and has to pass a speaking order and the third-party rights have to be protected. 19. Possibly, no one can dispute with regard to the aforesaid observations, but the same would not come to the rescue of the petitioner in the instant case. The word Third-Party has been defined under Section 2(n) of the Act, to mean a person other than the citizen making a request for information and includes a public authority (and not otherwise). 20. It is not a matter of dispute that respondent No. 5-Shamsher Singh sought the information from the SPIO and it was the SIC, which directed the SPIO to supply the information, vide impugned speaking orders (Annexures P-4 and P-14). Since, the matter was between respo .....

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

→ Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

 

 

 

 

Quick Updates:Latest Updates