Source: Delhi High Court Infowire [1], PTI [2 <http://ptinews.com>] * The Central Information Commission of India ruled today that citizens can only be provided copies of the final judgments of the Courts in RTI. For other information on judicial proceedings citizens must apply directly to the concerned Courts. The CIC took this decision after a third party Er. Sarbajit Roy emailed allegations to CIC Wajahat Habibullah about the appellant Shri Shekhar Singh. * The appellant Sh Shekhar Singh of Munirka, New Delhi had asked for the following information from CPIO of Central Information Commission.
*1. Copies of all petitions / affidavits pertaining to decisions of your Information Commission on RTI appeal/ complaints or any other RTI related matter filed in any High Court/ Supreme Court.* *2. Copies of all replies, affidavits, documents and records submitted by your Information Commission to the High Court / Supreme Court in connection with any of the above cases.* *3. Any orders of any High Court/ Supreme Court in relation to any of these matters.* The CPIO of CIC Tarun Kumar provided appellant list in 11 pages of about 158 cases filed in High Courts by the CIC and advised Shri Shekhar Singh to approach the Courts for the orders in these. Instead Shri Singh filed appeals to the CIC, and Er. Sarbajit Roy from Delhi thereafter applied to impleaded as a third party, to which Sh Singh's objection was upheld "*Since the information asked for by him (Shri Singh) was already on the High Court website, as already intimated by CPIO, CIC.*" The CIC then addressed itself to the information disclosure issue by saying "*as will be seen the information sought by appellant Shri Shekhar Singh is now in the public domain. The question only arises as to which is the competent authority from which this may be obtained.*" The Commission then went on to hold "*once a case has been decided and the limitation period subsequent to the judgment has elapsed, such information becomes public. The Supreme Court, the High Court and this Commission have tacitly accepted this principle by placing of such decisions in the public domain and thereby accessible to all.*" This principle was buttressed by the CIC repeatedly "*In all such cases of a cause, appeal or matter as are pending decision before the Supreme Court/ High Court all documents of the nature sought by appellant Shri Shekhar Singh can be obtained only under the prescribed rules of the High Court and the Supreme Court.*" and then "On the other hand copies of all decisions in Writ filed concerning Central Information Commission, and which have been received and held in the public domain, are indeed being provided by this Commission by placing these on the Commission’s website once a case has been decided and the limitation period subsequent to the date of announcement of the judgment has elapsed." to declare "*This would decidedly mean that copies of all petitions/ affidavits pertaining to decisions of the Information Commission on RTI appeal/ complaints or any other RTI related matter filed in any High Court/ Supreme Court, which would include submissions made before the Courts by any other party are not for the Information Commission to provide.*" This judgment effectively means appellant Shri Shekhar Singh will only receive copies of final judgments of High Court which are in the public domain on CIC website after limitation period is over. For the other information he will have to reapply afresh in each case under the concerned High Court Rules after paying the application fees of those Courts. He will also be limited to requesting from the Court only the information which was composed and submitted by the Commission in decided matters or after convincing the Court in each undecided case as regulated by the Court Rules and practice. This judgment has been warmly welcomed by advocates though out India as again upholding the primacy of High Court and Supreme Court Rules over the RTI Act. Shri Shekhar Singh is the Convenor of the National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information better known as NCPRI. The third party Er. Sarbajit Roy is India's first applicant under RTI Act and has 19 Writs filed against him by the Central Information Commission.
