An applicant should restrict his application to seeking ‘information’ under RTI

Background

The appellant sought various information related with Supreme Court of India such as the applicability of the provision RTI Act to the Supreme Court of India and its Judges, the power of the Supreme Court to amend the RTI Act and the mechanism for ordinary citizen to meet the Chief Justice and other Judges. The Public Information Officer (PIO) stated that the Supreme Court of India had been following the provisions of the RTI Act. However he denied the information saying that he cannot provide an interpretation of any law and the queries sought by the appellant do not fall under the term ‘information’ as defined in section 2(f) “information” means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force; of the RTI Act. The Appellate Authority (FAA) endorsed the response of the PIO.

View of CIC

The Commission rejected the appeal observing that the queries raised by the appellant are clearly beyond the scope of the RTI Act and the contents of the second appeal are more rhetorical than factual. Further, the Commission observed that the appellant has not produced anything on record to show that the Supreme Court of India had ever claimed that the provisions of the RTI Act would not apply to them.

Citation: Shri Ashok Kumar v. Supreme Court of India in File No. CIC/SM/A/2011/001404