RTI bench dismisses 7,651 appeals, warns against misusing the law.

Hindustan Times: Sudarshan P. Gangan: Mumbai: Friday, August 01, 2025.

RTI Act should not be used as a tool of oppression or hold the government to ransom, says an order of the Information Commission.

Calling them a burden on the government administration and a misuse of the law, the Sambhaji Nagar bench of the Information Commission has dismissed 7,651 appeals led by 18 Right To Information (RTI) activists over the last 15 months. In a recent order, the commission also called the appeals led by one applicant in particular a misuse of the RTI Act. In doing so, the order stated, the applicant was holding government offces to ransom, potentially bringing work in these ofces to a standstill. 

In its order passed on July 14 and uploaded on the commission’s portal this week, Prakash Indalkar, state information commissioner of the Sambhaji Nagar bench of the commission, dismissed 81 appeals led by RTI activist Janak Gaikwad. Of the bulk appeals dismissed since April 2024, led by 18 applicants, 3,660 appeals led by Keshavraje Nimbalkar were dismissed in June and December 2024; and 1,144 second appeals led by activist Sharad Dabhade were dismissed in April and September 2024.

In a one-off order, Indalkar cited two verdicts by the Supreme Court and Chief Information Commission of India. He pointed to an August 2011 verdict of the apex court, which had stated, “The act should not … be converted into a tool of oppression and intimidation, and not turn into a scenario where 75% of the government staff is engaged in 75% of their time in collecting RTI information instead of discharging their duty…” the order states. The July 14 order also cited a verdict delivered by then central information commissioner, Shailesh Gandhi, in 2012, where he had said that right to information is a fundamental Indalkar also said that bulk appeals do not serve any public interest but vested individual interests. “Because of the bulk applications by specic applicants, signicant time of government ofcers and personnel is wasted. 

This has posed the danger of government staff spending most of their precious time collecting RTI information instead of serving the people,” the order stated. An ofcial from the Information Commission said that a large number of appeals were led against ofcers and teachers in aided and government schools, and government departments such as the forest and rural development departments. “In some cases, the appeals were led to blackmail government servants,” the ofcial said.