Delhi High Court judgment regarding Attorney General of India stayed
26 Mar, 2015A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S Endlaw of the Delhi High Court stayed an order of Justice Vibhu Bakhru holding that the office of the Attorney General for India (AGI) is a public authority as defined under section 2 (h) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. (Readers may refer to the “An analysis of the Delhi HC judgment regarding office of the Attorney General of India” Link : http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/analysis-delhi-hc-judgment-regarding-office-attorn#.VRLzIfyUe1U
On March 10, the single judge had ruled that the AGI Office is covered under the ambit of the RTI Act. The single judge bench had passed the order on a petition filed against the Central Information Commission (CIC) ruling that the AGI was only a person and could not be considered as an “authority” and, hence, fell outside the scope of section 2(h) “public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted (a) by or under the Constitution; (b) by any other law made by Parliament; (c) by any other law made by State Legislature; (d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any- (i) body owned, controlled or substantially financed; (ii) non-Government organization substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government; of the RTI Act. The CIC order may be read at http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/ag-%E2%80%98public-authority%E2%80%99-right-information-act-2915.
Following the judgment, the Centre approached the division bench of the high court challenging the order issued by the single bench claiming it to be bad in law. The division bench posted the matter for April 27 saying “It requires consideration. The order of single judge is stayed.” The bench said "We will hear the appeal filed by Ministry of Law and Justice …. We have to stay the order of the single judge, otherwise the purpose will not be served.”