New Delhi: The Suprme Court on Friday argued
before the Central Information Commission that Right to
Information cannot apply unless the sought information is
"lawfully" held by an authority in a manner a title of
property is held, which was rejected by CIC.
Presenting the apex court's arguments before the
Commission, advocate Devadatt Kamat said the word "held" as
mentioned section 2 (j) of the RTI Act does not does not mean
possession of it unless there is a sanction of law behind
holding of information. Hence, there cannot be any Right to
Information, he maintained.
Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said
the argument was not correct and would "strike out the root of
the RTI Act" as in that case no information could be asked
under the transparency law.
Habibullah said the word "held" mentioned in the section
means ordinarily held adding it does not say lawfully held or
held like property title as mentioned by apex court.
The CIC was hearing the plea of information rights
activist S C Agrawal whose application seeking complete
correspondence with the CJI in the case of Justice R Reghupati
of Madras High Court being allegedly approached by a Union
Minister to influence his decisions was rejected by the
Supreme Court Registry.
Section 2 (j) says "right to information" means the
right to information accessible under this Act which is held
by or under the control of any public authority.
PTI
First Published: Friday, November 20, 2009, 22:54