Church patriarchal tribunal not under RTI purview, rules HC.

Times of India: Friday, August 18, 2023.

The centuries-old patriarchal tribunal of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman does not come within the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, ruled the high court of Bombay at Goa on Thursday. Justice Mahesh Sonak observed, “The canon law or the canonical law cannot be regarded as a law made by Parliament of India or the state legislature.” A canon is a Church decree or a law. In returning this verdict, the high court has set aside a nine-year-old order of Goa State Information Commission (SIC). 

The order of SIC had stated that “a citizen of Goa is allowed to inspect not only the list but also the register in respect of the process of annulment, which is kept by patriarchal tribunal.” The high court said some decisions and judgments of ecclesiastical courts and tribunals constituted under the canon law may have acquired limited recognition under the state law or the parliamentary law. But, the court added, such recognition in itself would not be sufficient to hold that ecclesiastical courts or tribunals are authorities established by a law made by Parliament or the state legislature.