Should information available on website be provided in hard copies under RTI?
29 Aug, 2012Background
The applicant asked certain detail information regarding illegal construction of properties from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The Public Information Officer (PIO) replied that information sought by the appellant is available on the MCD website.
The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that the PIO has basically asked the appellant to visit a website and obtain the information. The CIC held that most citizens in the country cannot access website and the PIO may give the web link of the information being available on the website, but he should also offer to provide the information in hardcopies.
View of CIC
The CIC directed the PIO to provide the complete detailed information sought by the Appellant and warned that he must inform citizens of how much additional fee is required to be paid if they want information in hardcopies.
Comments
The view of the different benches of CIC has varied on this point. Some benches of CIC have held that the information already in public domain is no longer held by the public authority and the public authority is not obliged to provide the same to an applicant.
Citation: Mr. Ashwani Kumar v. Municipal Corporation of Delhi, in Decision No. CIC/SG/A/2012/001107/19129
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/602
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