TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (3) TMI 1440
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....s: An RTI application dated 05.04.2010 was filed by Respondent No. 2 seeking information pertaining to the following cases-Civil Application No. 5517 of 2003 and Civil Application No. 8072 of 1989 along with all relevant documents and certified copies. In reply, by letter dated 29.04.2010, Public Information Officer, Gujarat High Court informed Respondent No. 2 that for obtaining required copies, he should make an application personally or through his advocate on affixing court fees stamp of Rs. 3/- with requisite fee to the "Deputy Registrar". It was further stated that as Respondent No. 2 is not a party to the said proceedings, as per Rule 151 of the Gujarat High Court Rules, 1993, his application should be accompanied by an affidavit stating the grounds for which the certified copies are required and on making such application, he will be supplied the certified copies of the documents as per Rules 149 to 154 of the Gujarat High Court Rules, 1993. 4. Being aggrieved, Respondent No. 2 preferred Appeal No. 84 of 2010 before the Appellate Authority-Registrar Administration Under Section 19 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (for short "RTI Act"). The appeal was dismissed vide ....
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....t the party who seeks certified copies has to make an application along with the copying charges and requisite court fees stamp as per Rules 149 to 154 of the Gujarat High Court Rules. As per the Rules, if the certified copy is sought by a person who is not a party to the litigation, his application has to be accompanied by an affidavit stating therein the purpose for which he requires the certified copies. Vide impugned order, the High Court allowed the Letters Patent Appeal holding that when a particular field is governed by the Rules which are not declared ultra-vires, then there is no question of applying the fresh Rules and make the situation confusing. The High Court held that in the light of the High Court Rules, certified copies may be given on payment of charges as per the Rules and also the applicant (Respondent No. 2) has to file an affidavit disclosing the purpose for which the certified copies are required and there is no question of making an application under the RTI Act. The Division Bench set aside the order of the Chief Information Commissioner by observing that when a copy is demanded by any person, the same has to be in accordance with the Rules of the High Cour....
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....eek information from the High Court under RTI Act can prejudicially affect the privacy/rights of other parties or the administration of justice. Reiterating the submission of Senior counsel, Mr. Preetesh Kapoor, Mr. Prashant Bhushan submitted that Rule 151 of the Gujarat High Court Rules is not in consonance with Section 6(2) of the RTI Act and the provisions of RTI Act prevails over the relevant Rules of Public Authorities/Gujarat High Court Rules. Taking us through Section 22 of the RTI Act, learned Counsel submitted that RTI Act is a general law made by the Parliament with the avowed object of dissemination of information and ensuring transparency in the functioning of the Public Authorities and in view of non obstante Clause of Section 22 of the RTI Act, in case of any conflict regarding "access to information from public authorities", the provisions of RTI Act will prevail over any other law. In support of his contention, the learned Counsel placed reliance upon Institute of Companies Secretaries of India v. Paras Jain MANU/SC/0783/2019 and the Constitution Bench judgment in Subhash Chandra Agrawal. 11. Mr. Aniruddha P. Mayee, learned Counsel appearing for Respondent No. 1-Hi....
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....mation on the administrative side of the High Court, the learned amicus submitted that access to such information could be had through the Rules framed by the various High Courts and the Rules framed under the RTI Act by the High Courts. Drawing our attention to the judgment of the Delhi High Court in The Registrar, Supreme Court of India v. R.S. Misra (2017) 244 DLT 179 and judgment of the Karnataka High Court in Karnataka Information Commissioner v. State Public Information Officer and Anr. WP (C) No. 9418 of 2008, the learned amicus submitted that the High Courts have taken a consistent view that the information can be accessed through the mechanism provided under the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 and the High Court Rules and once any information can be accessed through the mechanism provided under the Statute or the Rules framed, the provisions of the RTI Act cannot be resorted to. 13. We have carefully considered the contentions and perused the impugned judgment and materials on record. The following points arise for consideration in this appeal: (i) Whether Rule 151 of the Gujarat High Court Rules, 1993 stipulating that for providing copy of documents to the third parties, the....
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....er device; (j) "right to information" means the right to information accessible under this Act which is held by or under the control of any public authority and includes the right to-- (i) inspection of work, documents, records; (ii) taking notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records; (iii) taking certified samples of material; (iv) obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through printouts where such information is stored in a computer or in any other device; 17. Section 8(1) of the RTI Act provides for exemption from disclosure of information. Right to information is subject to exceptions or exemptions stated in Section 8(1)(a) to 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. There are ten clauses of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act. Clause (a) of Sub-section (1) of Section 8 deals with information that would compromise the sovereignty or integrity of the country and like matter; Clause (b) covers any information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court; Clause (c) covers such matters which would cause a b....
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....rocedure of the Court. In exercise of the powers Under Article 145 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court has framed "Supreme Court Rules". Order XIII of the Supreme Court Rules lays down the procedure in respect of grant of certified copies of pleadings, judgments, documents, decrees or orders, deposition of the witnesses, etc. to the parties to the litigation and also to the third parties. The parties to a proceeding in the Supreme Court shall be entitled to obtain certified copies by making appropriate application and the court fees payable as per the "Supreme Court Rules". So far as the third parties are concerned, as per Order XIII Rule 2 of the Supreme Court Rules, the court on the application of a person who is not a party to the case, appeal or matter, pending or disposed of, may on good cause shown, allow such person to receive such copies as is or are mentioned in the Order XIII Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules. Thus, as per the Supreme Court Rules also, the third party is required to show good cause for obtaining certified copies of the documents or orders. 20. Article 216 relates to the constitution of High Courts. Every High Court consists of a Chief Justice and othe....
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....oceedings are entitled to obtain certified copies of orders/judgments/documents on filing of application along with prescribed court fees stamp. Insofar as furnishing of certified copies to third parties, the Rules framed by the High Courts stipulate that the certified copies of documents/orders or judgments or copies of proceedings would be furnished to the third parties only on the orders passed by the court or the Registrar, on being satisfied about the reasonable cause and bona fide of the reasons seeking the information/certified copies of the documents. We may refer to the Rules framed by the High Courts of Bombay, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madras and various other High Courts which stipulate similar provisions for furnishing information/certified copies to third parties. The Rules stipulate that for the third parties to have access to the information on the judicial side or obtaining certified copies of documents/judgments/orders, the third parties will have to make an application stating the reasons for which they are required and on payment of necessary court fees stamp. As pointed out earlier, Supreme Court Rules also stipulate that certified copies of documen....
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.... passed by the High Court, notes of proceedings, etc.; (c) In exercise of power of superintendence over the other courts and tribunals, information received in the records submitted/called for by those courts and tribunals like subordinate judiciary, various tribunals like Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal and other tribunals; (d) information on the administrative side of the High Court viz. appointments, transfers and postings of the judicial officers, staff members of the High Court and the district judiciary, disciplinary action taken against the judicial officers and the staff members and such other information relating to the administrative work. (e) Correspondence by the High Court with the Supreme Court, Government and with the district judiciary, etc.; and (f) information on the administrative side as to the decision taken by the collegium of the High Court in making recommendations of the Judges to be appointed to the High Court; information as to the assets of the sitting Judges held by the Chief Justice of the High Court. 25. Information under the categories (a), (b) and (c) and other information on the judicial s....
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....ion. 27. Rule 151 of the Gujarat High Court Rules, 1993 requires a third party applicant seeking copies of documents in any civil or criminal proceedings to file an application/affidavit stating the reasons for which those documents are required. As such, the High Court Rules do not obstruct a third party from obtaining copies of documents in any court proceedings or any document on the judicial side. It is not as if the information is denied or refused to the applicant. All that is required to be done is to apply for the certified copies with application/affidavit stating the reasons for seeking the information. The reason insisting upon the third party for stating the grounds for obtaining certified copies is to satisfy the court that the information is sought for bona fide reasons or to effectuate public interest. The information is held by the High Court as a trustee for the litigants in order to adjudicate upon the matter and administer justice. The same cannot be permitted by the third party to have access to such personal information of the parties or information given by the Government in the proceedings. Lest, there would be misuse of process of court and the information ....
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....ne of the objects of democracy is to bring about transparency of information to contain corruption and bring about accountability. But achieving this object does not mean that other equally important public interests including efficient functioning of the governments and public authorities, optimum use of limited fiscal resources, preservation of confidentiality of sensitive information, etc. are to be ignored or sacrificed. The object of the RTI Act is to harmonise the conflicting public interests, that is, ensuring transparency to bring in accountability and containing corruption on the one hand, and at the same time ensure that the revelation of information, in actual practice, does not harm or adversely affect other public interests which include efficient functioning of the governments, optimum use of limited fiscal resources and preservation of confidentiality of sensitive information, on the other hand. While Sections 3 and 4 seek to achieve the first objective, Sections 8, 9, 10 and 11 seek to achieve the second objective. 25. Therefore, when Section 8 exempts certain information from being disclosed, it should not be considered to be a fetter on the right to information,....
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....eparate from providing information. The SCR not only deal with providing 'certified copies' of judicial records but also deal with providing 'not a certified copy' or simply a 'copy' of the document. The certification of the records is done by the Assistant Registrar/Branch Officer or any officer on behalf of the Registrar. In the opinion of this Court, in case of a statute which contemplates dissemination of information as provided for by the Explanation to Section 4 of the RTI Act then in such situation, public will have minimum resort to the use of the RTI Act to obtain such information. 56. There are other provisions of the RTI Act which support the said position, namely, Sections 4(2), (3) and (4) which contemplate that if an information is disseminated then the public will have minimum resort to the use of the RTI Act to obtain information. In the present case, the dissemination of information under the provisions of the SCR squarely fits into the definition of "disseminated" as provided in the aforesaid Explanation to Section 7(9) and the Preamble contemplate a bar for providing information if it 'disproportionally diverts the resources of the p....
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....the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than RTI Act. Learned Senior Counsel for the Appellant has submitted that since the requirement Under Rule 151 of the Gujarat High Court Rules of filing an affidavit stating the grounds for seeking the information is directly contrary to Section 6(2) of the RTI Act and there is direct inconsistency between the provisions of the RTI Act and the Gujarat High Court Rules and in the event of conflict between the provisions of the RTI Act and any other law made by the Parliament or a State Legislature or any other authority, the RTI Act must prevail. 35. In the non obstante Clause of Section 22 of the RTI Act, three categories have been mentioned: (i) the Official Secrets Act, 1923; and (ii) any other law for the time being in force; or (iii) any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. In case of inconsistency of any law with the provisions of the Right to Information Act, overriding effect has been given to the provisions of the Right to Information Act. Section 31 of the RTI Act which is a repealing Clause repeals only ....
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....ntended by the legislature. In the RTI Act, there is no specific reference to the Rules framed by the various High Courts or any other special law excepting the Freedom of Information Act, 2002. 38. As discussed earlier, Rule 151 of the Gujarat High Court Rules requires a third party to the proceedings to file an affidavit and state the reasons for seeking access to the information or grant of certified copies of records and there is no inconsistency of the High Court Rules with the provisions of the RTI Act. The Gujarat High Court Rules neither prohibit nor forbid dissemination of information or grant of certified copies of records. The difference is only insofar as the stipulation of filing an application/affidavit or payment of fees, etc. is concerned, there is no inconsistency between the two provisions and therefore, the RTI Act has no overriding effect over Rule 151 of the Gujarat High Court Rules. 39. Ten categories of information are exempted from disclosure Under Section 8(1)(a) to (j) of the RTI Act. Section 8(1)(j) excludes disclosure of personal information, the disclosure of which: (i) has no relationship to any public activity or interest; or (ii) would cause unwarr....
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.... with third party information. As per Section 11 of the Act, if the requisite information or record or part thereof has been supplied by a third party and has been treated as confidential by that third party, then the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, within five days of receipt of the request give a written notice to such third party of the request and of the fact that the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, intends to disclose the information or record or part thereof and invite the third party to make a submission in writing or orally regarding whether such information should be disclosed and such submission of the third party shall be kept in view while taking a decision about the disclosure of the information. 42. We do not find any merit in the above submission and that such cumbersome procedure has to be adopted for furnishing the information/certified copies of the documents. When there is an effective machinery for having access to the information or obtaining certified copies which, in our view, is a very simple procedure i.e. filing of an application/affidav....