Re: [HumJanenge] Delhi High Court fines man for seeking private info under RTI

A good judgment (although must read the actual text).

Now there is additional firm basis for RTI "patriots" like us to state
that RTI "activists" are blackmailers, vexatious , etc etc.

Thanks Sid for posting this.

Sarbajit

On 3/8/12, Sidharth Misra <sidharthbbsr@gmail.com> wrote:
> HC fines man Rs50,000 for seeking private info under RTI
>
> Irked over "revengeful" litigation pursued by a man against his
> brother, the Delhi High Court today imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on him,
> holding that the information on filing sales tax returns, sought by
> him, were "private" in nature and cannot be spared under the
> transparency law.
>
> "When we examine the present case, we come to an opinion that the
> information on filing of sales tax returns of a person are duly
> protected under the Right to Information Act and has rightly been not
> provided," a bench of Acting Chief Justice AK Sikri and Justice Rajiv
> Sahai Endlaw said.
>
> "The filing of the present appeal against the order of the
> single-judge bench of this court, which had upheld the order of the
> Central Information Commission (CIC), was abuse of the process of law.
> We impose a fine of Rs50,000 on petitioner (Ashok Kumar Goel). The
> fine would be deposited with the Delhi Legal Services Authority," it
> said.
>
> The bench also made it clear that the fine would be in addition to the
> cost of Rs25,000 imposed earlier on Goel by the single judge bench of
> the court.
>
> "I am sorry. I will not even allow you to withdraw your petition. You
> are trying to settle a personal score with your brother that too
> through the RTI. These are confidential and private information and
> hence, you cannot be allowed to abuse the process of law. We are
> passing an order and will impose a cost of Rs50,000 on you," Justice
> Sikri said.
>
> Detailing the sequence of events, the court said the Public
> Information Officer of Sales Tax department denied the information
> under the RTI to Ashok Kumar Goel about the sales tax returns filed by
> his brother Premchand Goel.
>
> The decision was upheld by the CPIO, the CIC and the single judge
> bench and the division bench of the high court.
>
> The court said the purpose of the RTI was not to enable a person take
> "undue" advantage of the law to settle personal scores.
>
> "We cannot allow that such information be provided under the RTI. The
> provisions of the Sales Tax Act and the RTI make it very clear that
> information about the sales tax returns are "private" in nature and
> cannot be provided unless a larger public interest was involved," it
> said.
>
> Even the officials of the Sales Tax department can be punished and
> jailed for leaking such information and hence, the petition required
> to be dismissed, it said.
>
> Source : DNA
>
> http://goo.gl/8vv6P
>