SC gives CIC lessons on RTI

New Delhi, Nov 21: In a debate on the lawful application of the Right to Information (RTI) under section 2 (j), Supreme Court on Friday, Nov 20, said that the RTI cannot be applied unless the information is 'lawfully' held by the authority like a property title.

CIC had rejected the argument against the Section 2 (j) of RTI Act allows right to information accessible under this Act which is held by or under the control of any public authority.

Putting forward the SC Court's argument, advocate Devadatt Kamat said RTI cannot be applied in all cases as the word 'held' under section 2 (j) does not mean possession of any information unless there is a sanction of law behind holding of information.

In response to the argument Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said that the word 'held' in the section means held in the ordinary sense and lawfully or held like property title does not figure as mentioned by the SC.

Calling the argument to be incorrect Habibullah said that the application of SC argument would "strike out the root of the RTI Act" as in that case no information could be asked under the transparency law.

The argument came in the backdrop of the plea of information rights activist S C Agrawal whose application seeking complete correspondence with the CJI in the case of Justice R Reghupati of Madras High Court being allegedly approached by a Union Minister to influence his decisions was rejected by the Supreme Court Registry.

OneIndia News