The escalating misuse of the RTI Act has resulted in a state of paralysis and instilled fear among government officials: Delhi High Court

Case: SHISHIR CHAND v. THE CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION & ANR.

Coram: Justice Subramonium Prasad

Case No.: W.P.(C) 11820/2021

Court Observation: “The Act was brought into to provide for secure access to information to every citizen, and to prevent corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable. However, this Court is now seeing increasing abuse/misuse of the RTI Act…,”

“This Court has unfortunately been coming across various cases where abuse of RTI has led to paralysis and fear among Government officials,”

“A perusal of the queries raised in the RTI application reveals that the Petitioner has once again attempted to extract information regarding the findings and reasoning of the Ethics Committee rather than challenging the Order of the Ethics Committee. Undoubtedly, the Petitioner is abusing the Right to Information 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,”

“However, if further information is sought, then the right of the person cannot be extinguished. In fact, the RTI Act does not provide for dismissal of an application with costs. Information which has already been furnished need not be furnished again, and the application can be rejected on this ground,”

“In view of the above, this Court is, therefore, inclined to set aside the relevant portion of the Order of the Ld. CIC by which the Ld. CIC has directed the Central Registry of the Commission not to entertain any further cases from the Petitioner herein on the same subject matter,”

“The Court is sympathetic to the pain of the Petitioner, however, the Petitioner 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.”

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Keywords

The escalating misuse of the RTI