High Court order to cite reasons for seeking information irks RTI activists

NEW DELHI: A Madras high court ruling last week saying a Right to Information ( RTI) applicant must cite reasons for seeking information has been denounced by activists who said the law has no such requirement and that the order can be misused by public authorities to turn down requests.

The court last Wednesday ruled that any person who seeks information under the RTI Act must show it is either for his "personal interest or for a public interest." "If such details are either absent or not disclosed, such query cannot be construed as the one satisfying the requirement of the RTI Act," according to the order.

It further said "right" under the RTI Act is not defined and therefore it must be coupled with an object and purpose. "Such object and purpose must, undoubtedly, have a legal basis or be legally sustainable and enforceable," the court said. Going by the order, a public information officer (PIO) can ask an applicant to provide reasons, failing which an application could be rejected, RTI experts said.

"The ruling would definitely weaken the transparency law as it could be misused by the PIOs. The CIC (Central Information Commission) must approach the Supreme Court to review the verdict," said noted RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal. He said the court failed to take into consideration Section 6 (2) of the RTI Act, which says that "an applicant making request for information shall not be required to give any reason for requesting the information."

PIOs have quoted various high court judgments in the past to reject or delay information requests and this ruling could also be used for it, said CJ Karira, a Hyderabad-based RTI expert. "If that happens, we can expect a huge number of applicants approaching CIC against the decisions of PIO as the court has not defined the term ‘personal and public interest,’" he added.