CIC directs Supreme Court to disclose Impugned order details and update its website
IN a landmark decision, the Chief Information Commissioner in the case of R.K.Jain v. CPIO, Supreme Court, has directed the CPIO of the Supreme Court of India to disclose the details of the Impugned Order (lower Court details) such as name of the Court, date of decision, case/order No. and also to upload the same on its website in larger public interest.
These directions have been issued by rejecting the plea of the Supreme Court that
(i) the information sought is not covered under section 2(f) of the RTI Act;
(ii) such information is obtainable by applying certified copies under Supreme Court Rules being judicial records and not under RTI;
(iii) the database available on the computer system of Supreme Court are for internal use, hence not disclosable on their website;
(iv) providing such information will disproportionately divert the resource of the Supreme Court;
(v) in some cases, the data has not been updated on the internal server of the Supreme Court hence not available on website and for such information, an application under Supreme Court Rules is required to be made
(vi) RTI applicant is entitled only to such information which can be accessed by the Public Authority under any law;
(vii) the compliance to Section 4 of the RTI Act is an obligation on the part of the Public Authority and not the CPIO;
It is noteworthy that similar information was earlier provided by the same CPIO of the Supreme Court and such information is otherwise available at the kiosks installed in the Supreme Court premises but not displayed on Supreme Court website.