Times of India: Mumbai: Saturday, November 04, 2023.
Bombay high court’s public information officer (PIO) denied information on structural audits of the high court building under the Right to Information (RTI) Act on the grounds including that such details would endanger the life or physical safety of judges and officials.
Environmental activist Zoru Bhathena had sought information on the last three structural audits conducted for the main and annexe buildings of the Bombay high court.
The reply said the information sought is exempted from disclosure under the RTI Act for security purposes, and no larger public interest is demonstrated in the plea.
The information sought is held by the concerned department in fiduciary relationship, said the PIO. “No larger public interest is demonstrated in your application. Hence, the information sought cannot be disclosed in view of exemption from disclosure under section 8(1) (e) of the Right to Information Act,” the public information officer said in the reply.
Bathena said he would now be filing an appeal against the refusal to provide the information with the concerned appellate authority.
Bhathena said the format required no reasons to be given. He said that he wanted the audit information of old structures such as the the BMC headquarters and the HC to compare with the Malabar Hill Reservoir (MHR) which is over a 100 years old. “We will now in the appeal, explain the reasons.” Bathena said they wanted to show that the age of structure is not relevant and only its condition is, as the HC and BMC buildings though older are structurally safe.
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