HC stays order to bring Attorney General of India's office under RTI

Times of India: New Delhi: Thursday, 26 March 2015.

The Delhi High Court Wednesday stayed till April 27 a decision of its single judge to bring the Attorney General of India's (AGI) office under the RTI Act.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice R S Endlaw said that the single judge's findings "require consideration" and it will hear the appeal filed by the Centre against the ruling.

In its appeal the law ministry argued that the AG is not a "public authority" as defined under the Act and the single judge erred in extending the ambit of the transparency law to the AG.

In its order, earlier this month, the single judge held AG's office to be a public authority on the ground that he performs functions by virtue of Article 76(2) of the Constitution of India. The single judge reversed a December 2012 CIC order that AG is not a public authority.

Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar and additional solicitor general Sanjay Jain maintained that AG's position is unique since he is a lawyer for the government and also renders sensitive legal opinion on matters of policy.

Earlier the single judge had refused to consider the government's argument that there was a practical difficulty in providing information under the Act as the office of the AG does not have the requisite infrastructure. It gave the ruling on the petitions of RTI activists Subhash Agarwal and R K Jain, who demanded that the office of the AG must be brought under the transparency law.

The court had directed the AG to reconsider the RTI application of Jain as his plea for information was denied on basis of the CIC order that the office of AGI is not a public authority. The CIC, in its 2012 order, had expressed the opinion that the AGI was only a person and could not be considered as an "authority" and, therefore, fell outside sweep of section 2(h) of the RTI Act.

Section 2(h) of the Act defines 'public authority'. While setting aside the CIC order, the court had noted that the expression 'authority' under RTI Act would include all persons or bodies that have been conferred power to perform the functions entrusted to them and those performing advisory functions cannot be excluded.