HC: President not immune from RTI

Indian Express: New Delhi: Friday, June 15, 2012.

Highlighting that the President of India is not immune from the application of the Right To Information (RTI) Act, the Delhi High Court on Thursday ruled that the donations made by the first citizen of the country required to be disclosed since it involved expenditure from public fund.

Justice Vipin Sanghi further noted that disclosure of such acts of generosity by the President should also be placed in public domain since they would enhance the stature of the office of the President and it would be in the public interest as well. Dismissing an appeal by the President’s Secretariat against a CIC order in May to provide to a RTI applicant information about the donations made by the President.

“In the present case, the donations have been made by the Hon’ble President of India from the tax payers’ money. 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, is no ground to withhold the said information. The President is not immune from the application of the Act,” held Justice Sanghi.

Maintaining the CIC order, the court underlined that the prime consideration in such cases would be that the spending was from the public fund, collected by the state from the citizens by imposition of taxes, duties, cess, services charges, etc, and not from a private fund placed at the President’s disposal for being donated amongst the needy and deserving persons.

Justice Sanghi also dismissed the argument by Additional Solicitor General A S Chandhiok that the disclosure would impinge on the privacy of the persons receiving the donations.