Seeking information about action taken by SC for failure of the State Government to set up Police Complaint Authority as per their order - noncompliance of the order of the SC is not resolved through either RTI or any administrative action

Order

1. In his RTI application, the Appellant had sought the details of the Police Complaints Authority established by each state in India following some order of the Supreme Court. He had also wanted to know if the State Government had not set up any Police Complaint Authority then what action the Supreme Court had taken against such states. The CPIO had disposed of the request with the observation that it was vague and not clear and that the orders of the Supreme Court were freely available in its website or could be accessed from the Registry by following the procedure laid down in the Supreme Court Rules 1966. Not satisfied with this order of the CPIO, the Appellant had preferred an appeal. The Appellate Authority dismissed his appeal as devoid of merit.

2. During the hearing, the Appellant submitted that the Supreme Court had passed some order giving a direction to all the State Governments to set up Police Complaints Authority and this order was a binding one. Therefore, he wanted the Supreme Court to inform him if the State Governments had complied with this order and set up Police Complaints Authority and, if not, what action the Supreme Court had taken. In response, the respondents submitted that the RTI request was silent on the details of any such order in which the Supreme Court might have directed the states to set up Police Complaints Authority making it impossible for the CPIO to locate the exact order. Besides, they also argued that the Supreme Court did not have any such information on whether any particular State Government had set up any Police Complaint Authority or not and the details like the phone number and email id etc.

3. We have carefully considered the facts of the case and the submissions made before us. This RTI application suffers from several deficiencies. Firstly, it is not addressed to the CPIO of the Supreme Court but to the Chief Justice by name. Secondly, the Appellant has not specified any particular Supreme Court order either by its number or by any other nomenclature so that the CPIO could identify it in the first place. Finally, the request has been made for information to the Supreme Court which could only be available with the respective state governments if they have set up any such Police Complaints Authority in their respective states. In spite of all this, we would like to advise the Appellant that the noncompliance of the order of the Supreme Court is not resolved through either RTI or any administrative action. Anybody aggrieved by the noncompliance of such orders, whether passed by the Supreme Court or any other court, would have to approach the court concerned and seek the compliance of its orders. In the present case, for example, if the Supreme Court had passed any order giving any particular direction which, according to the Appellant, is yet to be implemented by the state governments, in letter and spirit, he is absolutely free to approach the Supreme Court seeking relief regarding the compliance of that order. It is not for the CPIO to advise him on what action the Supreme Court could take in such a matter.

4. In the light of the above, we find no reason to interfere in the decision of the Appellate Authority.

(Satyananda Mishra)

Chief Information Commissioner

Citation: Shri Manoj Kr. Vishwakarma v. Supreme Court of India in File No. CIC/SM/A/2013/000274