Can’t deny info in ‘public interest’

Trashing its own earlier order, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has held that “larger public interest” cannot be a ground for denial of information under the Right to Information Act.

Updated on: Jan 5, 2009, 24:37:19 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Trashing its own earlier order, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has held that “larger public interest” cannot be a ground for denial of information under the Right to Information Act.

Information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi overruled an earlier CIC order making public interest a ground for denial of information stating that the earlier ruling was made without consulting the Right to Information (RTI) Act and court judgments in this regard.

“RTI law does provide for invoking ‘concept of public interest’ for denial of information,” Gandhi said, while asking the public information officer of Banaras Hindus University (BHU) to provide information to Mangla Ram Jat of Rajasthan, who had sought details of the university’s medical entrance examination.

The university had taken shelter under the 2007 order of information commissioner Padma Balakrishnan, in which information about answer key and question booklet of medical examination at AIIMS was denied as it did not serve “larger public
interest”.

While overruling Balakrishnan, Gandhi observed that the CIC cannot on its own impose exemptions and substitute their own views for those for the Parliament.

“It (CIC) cannot take upon itself the role of the legislature and import new exemptions hitherto not known,” he said in his order on December 31.

He also made it clear that the Act leaves no liberty with the adjudicating authorities to read law beyond what is stated explicitly. “There is absolutely no ambiguity in the Act and tinkering with it in the name of larger public interest is beyond the scope of the adjudicating authorities,” he said.

Gandhi, who was an RTI activist in Mumbai before joining the commission, said that public interest could be applied only if any of the exemptions under Section 8 apply.

Public interest is not applicable for exemptions under Section 8 if it impinges national security, is forbidden by court of law, causes breach of privilege of legislative bodies, impede investigation and information received in confidence from foreign government. While denying information regarding Cabinet papers, commercial secrets and fiduciary relationship, the information officer will have to justify that providing the information will not serve public interest.

“Even if exemptions apply, the Act enjoins that if there is a large public interest, the information will have to be given.

There is no requirement in the law of establishing any public interest for information to be obtained by a citizen,” he order said.

Under the Act, he said “providing information was the rule and denial an exception”.

“Any attempt to constrict or deny information to the citizen without the explicit sanction of the law will be going against rule of the law,” the order said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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