2011 (1) TMI 1552

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....application dated 28.11.2008. However, the FAA directed to CPIO to provide the details of RC nos. to the Appellant. It is against the FAA's Order that the Appellant has filed a second Appeal before the Central Information Commission. INFORMATION SOUGHT BY THE APPELLANT: 2. Through his RTI application dated 28.11.2008, the Appellant sought the following information: "Kindly provide all the letters or documents on which the competent authority had issued sanction for the investigation under Section 6A of the DSPE Act, 1946." 3. The CPIO, in his reply dated 18.03.2009, declined to furnish the requested information on the ground that the information pertained to a case which was sub judice and furnishing of the required infor....

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....enders;" The phrase "prosecution of offenders" means the conclusion of trial resulting in final conviction or acquittal of the accused. The expression "Prosecution" has been defined as "the institution or commencement of a criminal proceeding, the process of exhibiting formal charges against an offender before a legal tribunal, and pursuing them to final judgment on behalf of the State or Government or by indictment or information. A Prosecution exists until terminated in the final judgment of the Court, which results in the sentence, discharge or acquittal." [Advanced Law Lexicon, 3rd ed. Reprint 2007], [Criminal Justice India Series, Volume 20 pondicherry 2005, p.132], (See also 7 Calcutta Weekly Notes 883). Hence, prosecution culminat....

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...., each phrase and each word is meant and designed to say as to fit into the scheme of the entire Act. No part of a statute and no word of a statute can be construed in isolation. Statutes have to be construed so that every word has a place and everything is in its place." 8. It is now important to understand that the word "prosecution of offenders" and "process of investigation" have to be understood in the context of "impede". It is inconceivable to comprehend that after "investigation", the discretion of the trial court can be impeded by disclosure of information. The Division Bench of the CIC in Ms. Anita J. Gursahani vs. Cotton Corporation of India (Decision No.5561/ IC (A)/2010) decided on 24.06.2010 has elaborated further on this p....

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....the RTI Act, appellant's design was to deny the respondents the right to argue against the disclosure of information before the Trial Court, who alone had the power and the discretion to make a decision in a matter such as this. Apart from seeking tactical gains for himself vis-a-vis the respondents, appellant had also indirectly cast aspersions on the objectivity and the judgment of the Trial Court. It is thus obvious that in the matter of access to the requested information, appellant is not helpless. He can seek the same information through the Trial Court in full measure and should he succeed in persuading the Court he would have received the records and documents that he is now seeking to access through RTI Act." Full Bench of C....

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....ongoing court proceeding and hence it can be rightly said to be under the control of the Trial Court, who alone can decide how the information is to be dispensed. Any action under the RTI Act or any other Act for disclosure of that information to the very party who is arraigned before the Trial Court or to anyone representing that party, would have the effect of interfering with the discretion of the Court, thereby impeding an extant prosecution proceeding. In S.M.Lamba Vs. S.C.Gupta and another Delhi High Court has held "This court would like to observe that under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 once the stage of an order framing charges have been crossed, it would be open to the accused to make an appropriate application before the l....

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....o be any scope for interpreting the provisions of the Code to change the chronology and/or sequence in which these steps are to be taken. In other words, the Code does not permit expressly or even by implication change of sequence in which these steps are to be taken. True it is that there is no express prohibition contained in the Code for altering the sequence in which such steps are to be taken." 10. We agree with the interpretation given as above. The mere fact that the investigation is complete does not mean that the information which forms part of the Investigation process will be outside the purview of Section 8(1)(h) because the same Section also bars the disclosure of that information as it can impede the prosecution of offender....