‘Difficulty to collate data not a ground for rejecting RTI plea’

New Delhi: Delhi High Court recently ruled that difficulty in collating information was not a valid reason to deny information under Right to Information Act (RTI) 2005.
A single-judge bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad said a public authority could not refuse to provide information under RTI Act on the basis that it was not available at one place and that it would take a long time to collate.
The court was hearing a plea filed by Delhi govt against an order of Central Information Commission (CIC), which directed it to provide information to RTI applicant Prabhjot Singh Dhillon on the actions taken by education department against teachers for offering private tuitions.
The court also observed that the objective of RTI Act was to ensure transparency in the functioning of departments and it couldn’t be thwarted by state govt on the ground that voluminous information was being sought and, therefore, couldn’t be provided. “Govt also cannot deny information on the ground that it will take time to collate the information,” the bench stated on May 2.
Govt had moved high court, stating that it had no control over unaided schools and, therefore, couldn’t provide information regarding actions taken by them against their teachers for giving private tuitions. It also submitted that there was no directive from the vigilance wing of education department to maintain a list of cases of misconduct and that private unaided schools were not public authorities subject to RTI Act.
Directing govt to provide the information on disciplinary proceedings taken by govt and aided schools, the court said, “Since the time given by CIC in the impugned order is over, it is open to the petitioner (Delhi govt) to approach CIC for an extension of time.”
Regarding the unaided schools, the court said rules 118, 120(1)(d)(iv) and 121(2) of Delhi School Education Rules 1973 stipulated that if such a school wanted to take a major penalty against a teacher, it would need Director of Education’s approval. Therefore, the information regarding these schools can also be collated from such records, the court pointed out.
It added, “Efforts have to be made by the department to collate the information and then provide it to the respondent.”