The RTI Act, 2005 (“RTI Act”) prescribes a set of officers viz- the Central Public Information Officer (“CPIO”) and the First Appellate Authority (“FAA”) and also lays down their role, responsibility and accountability.
The accountability matrix under the RTI Act:
The RTI Act provides that the decision of the CPIO can be appealed against at the First Appellate Authority level and at the Information Commissioner level. Also, in case, the CPIO, commits any infraction, the Information Commissioner can impose penalty on him. Thus, as regards the decision taken by the CPIO under the Act, he is accountable only to the Central Information Commission/State Information Commission and to no other authority.
Kerala High Court decision:
In a recent case[1], an RTI Act activist challenged the order of the Additional Chief Secretary, Kerala State Government, before the High Court of Kerala. The order contained the following directive:
“all documents/information related to Inter State matters and documents/information which Government feels privy and the disclosure of the same may hamper the interest of the State shall be exempted from revealing to the public even on request under RTI Act”
The Kerala High Court viewed the order as an attempt to influence the officers of the RTI Act by dictating that they will not provide certain information irrespective of the mandate of the RTI Act.
It questioned the rationale of the order in view of the fact that, the RTI Act has a well-defined hierarchy of officers, headed by the State Information Commission, which is expected to be autonomous and resistant to any pressure from the Executive and it was up to the individual Information Officers, Appellate Authorities and the Information Commission to grant or deny such information, guided by the imperatives of the RTI Act.
The Court found the directive to be a very dangerous proposition and could not understand how the Government could issue such an order, as, information under the RTI Act can be denied only under Section 8 and 9 of the Act and the attempt of the Government to dictate them, could never obtain support in law.
Kerala High Court clarified unequivocally that notwithstanding the order:
“the Public Information
Officers, Appellate Authorities and the State Information Commission shall only
act implicitly in terms of the RTI Act, de hors this order, adverting to the
exceptions statutorily provided and nothing more, nothing less”
[1]Adv DB Binu Vs. SPIO and others, WP (C) No.1102 of 2019 dated 25.6.2019
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