India News | HC Notice to Rajasthan Police over Denial of Case Info to Complainant Under RTI Act
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday issued notices to the police department and the state information commission over the Jaisalmer police's refusal to provide information related to a case of alleged illegal lifting of water from a canal under the RTI Act.
Jodhpur, Aug 20 (PTI) The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday issued notices to the police department and the state information commission over the Jaisalmer police's refusal to provide information related to a case of alleged illegal lifting of water from a canal under the RTI Act.
The petitioner, Baburam Chouhan, moved the high court alleging that the police refused to provide him information under a provision of the Right to Information Act which bars disclosure of information that could affect investigation into a case or the process of prosecution.
Chouhan is also the complainant in the case.
The petitioner's counsel, Rajak Haider, argued in the court that the information sought by the applicant "did not fall under the purview of this section as the investigation had already been completed and charge sheet has already been filed".
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According to the petition, Chouhan had filed a complaint against 27 people for stealing water from a canal in the Ramgarh police station area of Jaisalmer. After completion of the investigation, the police filed charge sheet only against three persons.
The petitioner then sought information under the RTI Act from the Jaisalmer police and the state information commission, which included the case diary and all documents related to the case.
The Public Information Officer refused to provide information stating that the matter was under trial and advised the applicant to obtain the documents from the court.
The superintendent of police of the district, who is also the first appellate officer, and the Rajasthan State Information Commission upheld the decision of not providing information to the applicant, after which, he moved the high court.
After the preliminary hearing, Justice Vijay Bishnoi issued notices to the Secretary (Home), SP and Additional SP (Jaisalmer) and the Rajasthan State Information Commission seeking their response.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)