Disclosure of donations made by President under RTI stayed by the Delhi High Court
14 Jul, 2012The division bench of acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw of the Delhi high court have granted a stay against the order of the single bench which had said that every citizen is entitled to know the donations given by the President of India under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The single bench had upheld the order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) directing the President's secretariat to make public the names of recipients of the donation, besides their address and the sum of donation given.
Hearing an appeal filed by the President's office seeking quashing of the June 14 order by the single bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi, the division bench of High Court has issued a notice to the RTI applicant, Mr. Nitish Kumar Tripathi, and sought his response by August 24.
On a petition by Mr. Tripathi who wanted information about the donations made by the President between 2009 and 2011, Justice Vipin Sanghi had held in his June 14 judgment that "every citizen is entitled to know as to how the money, which is collected by the state from him by exaction has been utilised. Merely because the person making the donations happens to be the President of India is no ground to withhold the said information……The hon'ble President of India is not immune from the application of the Act (RTI). What is important is that it is a public fund which is being donated by the President and not his/her private fund placed at his /her disposal for being donated amongst the needy and deserving persons."