ராஜபார்வை - RAJAPAARVAI

 RTI

The recent pre-corona (March 4,2020) SC judgment on RTI Act clearly undermines the enabling provisions of the RTI Act .

Reasons to be submitted for asking information from the Court.

Power of RTI Act to override other laws/rules in contravention of the RTI Act 2005 is also sidelined.

 

THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPEAL NO(S).1966-1967 OF 2020

(Arising out of SLP(C) No.5840 of 2015)

 

CHIEF INFORMATION COMMISSIONER …..Appellant

VERSUS

HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AND ANOTHER …..Respondents

 

J U D G M E N T :

R. BANUMATHI, J.

 

The Supreme Court has recently (March 4, 2020) delivered a judgment that has not only harmed the Act but also belittles the basic principles of legal reasoning.

The Supreme Court ruling on the Right to Information Act’s applicability to the High Courts of the country has simply overturned a fundamental principle of the Act itself.

 

In the RTI Act 2005, there is a specific provision that the requestor for – information need not provide any reasons for the request. But the pre-pandemic judgment has clearly upset that provision of the Act.

In the instant case the Supreme Court faced an apparent conflict between the RTI Act, 2005 and the rules of the Gujarat High Court 1993.

The Gujarat HC Rule 1993, states that when a third party seeks certified copies of the documents of any case , the requesting party should submit an affidavit,  along with the request, stating the reasons on which the documents are required.

This Supreme Court’s ruling is being termed as “an exercise in flawed legal reasoning.”  What is worse is that the highest court of the country has concluded that the Gujarat HC Rules 1993 are not in contradiction with the RTI Act 2005.

The RTI Act explicitly states that wherever the RTI Act is inconsistent with any other law, the provisions of the RTI Act shall have an overriding effect on that law. Even this provision has been sidelined by the March 2020 decision of the Supreme Court.

 

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