Application addressed to central public authority should be written in Hindi or English
21 Jan, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Rajya Sabha Secretariat half of which was written in English and the rest in Malayalam. He referred to some news items published in Delhi newspapers regarding the diversion of forest land by the Union Forest Ministry for non- forestry use and wanted to know the basis on which such diversion had been ordered as well as about the nature of the land which stood diverted. The Public Information Officer (PIO) observed that the Rajya Sabha secretariat did not have any information on this subject. He also pointed out that the RTI application was written in a regional language and it was not legible to him.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that the information sought by the appellant was either with the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest or the Forest Department of the State Government of Kerala. The Commission advised the appellant to approach those public authorities. The CIC also advised the appellant to write the application in Hindi or English if he wishes to address it to any central public authority.
Citation: Mr. Somanathan v. Rajya Sabha Secretariat in File No. CIC/SM/A/2012/001049
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/978
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