Dear All,
Those of you who have used the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) or have read the bare text of the law, are familiar with a proviso under Section 8(1) which says that information that cannot be denied to Parliament or a State Legislature cannot be denied to any citizen. The scope and application of this proviso were interpreted for the first time by the Bombay High Court in 2007. Since then seven more High Courts have given their opinion on this subject. There is no uniformity of interpretation. Five High Courts (Bombay, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Madras and Patna) have interpreted this proviso, in six cases, as being applicable only to clause (j) of Section 8(1), namely, the exemption protecting personal information of an individual from disclosure. Three High Courts (Calcutta, Kerala and Punjab and Haryana) have, in ten cases, interpreted this proviso as applying to all exemption clauses listed in Section 8(1). In at least two High Courts (Bombay and Delhi) single-judge and Division Benches have held contrary views indicating the lack of crystallisation of judicial precedent regarding the interpretation of the scope and application of this proviso. A case-wise summary of the main dispute, the Court’s interpretation of the proviso and our analysis of the interpretation are contained in the attachment. Resolving this matter is very important. However I urge readers not to rush to the Court to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) suit but first discuss and debate this issue and then pick a strong case to take to Court.
Please circulate this attachment as widely as possible. This issue is central to the manner in which exemptions may be invoked to deny access to information under the RTI Act.
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Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
Venkatesh Nayak
Programme Coordinator
Access to Information Programme
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
B-117, First Floor, Sarvodaya Enclave
New Delhi- 110 017, INDIA
Tel: +91-11-43180215/ 43180201
Fax: +91-11-26864688
Skype: venkatesh.nayak@skype.com
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