India News | No Particular Format Required to File RTI: Haryana Information Commission

Chandigarh, Aug 10 (PTI) Haryana's State Information Commission (SIC) has held that no authority in the state can force an RTI applicant to file the application in a particular format and to disclose any reason for seeking information.

The commission observed that the RTI Act, 2005 is the central Act and Section 6 (2) allows an applicant to conceal his/her identity and to seek information without giving any reason.

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"No authority can force an RTI applicant to file RTI application in a particular form and to disclose any reason for seeking information and to disclose his identity... and the RTI applicant has to share only that much of the information, which is sufficient for supplying the requisite information at his convenient address," the commission has held.

"An applicant making a request for information shall not be required to give any reason for requesting the information or any other personal details except those that may be necessary for contacting him," it said citing provisions of the Act.

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The commission said the Haryana government nowhere made it mandatory till date that the provisions included in the rules notified in 2021 that to have information under RTl, "one has to use the form 'A' performa and to submit his/her identity card and to give any other details as mentioned in the Form A".

"The Form A given in Haryana Right to Information Rules, 2009 is substituted in the Haryana Right to Information (Amendment) Rules, 2021 and this Form A is a preferable proforma as per the rules notified in the year 2009 and the same is not made mandatory in the rules amended in the year 2021," the SIC said.

"Hence, it is purely on the wish of an RTI applicant, whether to use the said Form A or not and whether to give an identity card or not," held the commission while accepting the complainant's request to convert his complaint into an appeal.

A Jagadhri-based advocate had filed a complaint before SIC, Haryana in May stating that a public information officer had denied to supply information on two separate grounds by stating that the appellant had to seek the information afresh in model form "A", and to submit either his Aadhaar card, passport, voter card, PAN card, or government issued identity card, as mentioned in Model Form "A" as given in Haryana Right to Information (Amendment) Rules, 2021.

"In view of the foregoing observations, it is held that both of the grounds taken by respondent SPIO are not legally tenable," the commission held.

The SIC, in its June 29 order, had directed the public information officer to supply full information to the applicant free of cost within three days of receipt of the order.

(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)