Indian Express: Delhi: Friday, 22nd Dec 2023.
The Delhi High Court recently said that it has come across various cases wherein the “abuse” of the Right to Information (RTI) Act has led to “paralysis and fear” among government officials.
The observations came in a plea by one Shishir Chand against an order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) directing its registry to not entertain any further cases from him concerning the untimely demise of his younger brother on account of alleged medical negligence by Dr Atul Chhabra of Jamshedpur’s Tata Memorial Hospital.
A single-judge bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad in its December 19 order said, “The purpose of the RTI Act is meant to further good governance, and unfortunate misuse of the same will only dilute its importance as well as make government servants dither from carrying out their activities. This court has unfortunately been coming across various cases where abuse of RTI has led to paralysis and fear among government officials.”
Justice Prasad said that while the Act was brought in to provide secure access to information to every citizen, to prevent corruption, and to hold governments and their instrumentalities accountable, the court is now seeing increasing abuse or misuse of the RTI Act.
Calling it a “classic case of misuse of RTI”, Justice Prasad noted that the queries raised in the RTI application revealed that the petitioner had once again attempted to extract information regarding the findings and reasoning of the ethics committee rather than challenging the order of the ethics committee.
The high court said that the petitioner was undoubtedly abusing the RTI Act by “repeatedly filing applications by either trying to ascertain the degree of Dr Atul Chhabra, the issue which has already attained finality by the orders of this court as well as the apex court, or by trying to question the decision making process adopted by the ethics committee”.
The CIC had cited the list of RTI applications filed by the petitioner and the repeated attempts made by him to reopen the same issue again and again. It said the issues have already been considered from all aspects and a substantial amount of information has been made available to him. The commission had held since the ambit of the RTI Act is restricted to ensuring access to information from existing public records, it found that “enough relief” under the RTI Act has already been explored. It had opined that a “trial of medical negligence” cannot be held through the process of RTI.
Justice Prasad, however, said that though the petitioner had been abusing the RTI process, “it is the duty of the authorities to provide information and when the information stands provided then there is no necessity to provide the same information”.
The high court said that a citizen’s right to claim information under the RTI Act “cannot be doused if further or fresh information is sought” and opined that the petitioner had not sought the same information but had sought further information, and therefore, the CIC should not have passed the direction to the central registry to not to entertain any further cases from the petitioner on the same subject matter.
The court set aside the relevant portion of the CIC’s order directing the registry to not entertain further applications from the petitioner on the same subject.
“The court is sympathetic to the pain of the petitioner, however, he is advised not to abuse the process of law by trying to seek the same information over and over again, thereby diluting the very objective of the Act. The writ petition is allowed in part,” the high court said.
The Delhi High Court recently said that it has come across various cases wherein the “abuse” of the Right to Information (RTI) Act has led to “paralysis and fear” among government officials.
The observations came in a plea by one Shishir Chand against an order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) directing its registry to not entertain any further cases from him concerning the untimely demise of his younger brother on account of alleged medical negligence by Dr Atul Chhabra of Jamshedpur’s Tata Memorial Hospital.
A single-judge bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad in its December 19 order said, “The purpose of the RTI Act is meant to further good governance, and unfortunate misuse of the same will only dilute its importance as well as make government servants dither from carrying out their activities. This court has unfortunately been coming across various cases where abuse of RTI has led to paralysis and fear among government officials.”
Justice Prasad said that while the Act was brought in to provide secure access to information to every citizen, to prevent corruption, and to hold governments and their instrumentalities accountable, the court is now seeing increasing abuse or misuse of the RTI Act.
Calling it a “classic case of misuse of RTI”, Justice Prasad noted that the queries raised in the RTI application revealed that the petitioner had once again attempted to extract information regarding the findings and reasoning of the ethics committee rather than challenging the order of the ethics committee.
The high court said that the petitioner was undoubtedly abusing the RTI Act by “repeatedly filing applications by either trying to ascertain the degree of Dr Atul Chhabra, the issue which has already attained finality by the orders of this court as well as the apex court, or by trying to question the decision making process adopted by the ethics committee”.
The CIC had cited the list of RTI applications filed by the petitioner and the repeated attempts made by him to reopen the same issue again and again. It said the issues have already been considered from all aspects and a substantial amount of information has been made available to him. The commission had held since the ambit of the RTI Act is restricted to ensuring access to information from existing public records, it found that “enough relief” under the RTI Act has already been explored. It had opined that a “trial of medical negligence” cannot be held through the process of RTI.
Justice Prasad, however, said that though the petitioner had been abusing the RTI process, “it is the duty of the authorities to provide information and when the information stands provided then there is no necessity to provide the same information”.
The high court said that a citizen’s right to claim information under the RTI Act “cannot be doused if further or fresh information is sought” and opined that the petitioner had not sought the same information but had sought further information, and therefore, the CIC should not have passed the direction to the central registry to not to entertain any further cases from the petitioner on the same subject matter.
The court set aside the relevant portion of the CIC’s order directing the registry to not entertain further applications from the petitioner on the same subject.
“The court is sympathetic to the pain of the petitioner, however, he is advised not to abuse the process of law by trying to seek the same information over and over again, thereby diluting the very objective of the Act. The writ petition is allowed in part,” the high court said.
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