The Central Information Commissioner (CIC) has voiced concern over the “frivolous and vexatious” use of the RTI Act for seeking information which does not serve any public interest.
According to Satyananda Mishra, such vexatious RTIs resulted in the wastage of the resources and the time of the public authorities.
Mishra’s remarks echoed those of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had voiced concern over the frivolous and vexatious use of the RTI Act, while addressing the seventh convention of Information Commissioners held recently.
It was while hearing an appeal that Mishra said that how such requests, rather than serving any useful purpose, “disproportionately” diverted the resources of the public authorities. And the CIC took a strong view of the several RTI pleas filed by city-based RTI activist Vivek Garg.
“If there is anything called a tall order, this is a clear example of that. This is also an example of what is generally said to be a vexatious request for information,” he observed.
Garg had sought “innumerable items of information” relating to the correspondence between the National Advisory Council (NAC) and several authorities from 2004 onwards.
Referring to one of the pleas, the CIC revealed that Garg had requested that he be provided “certified copies of all kinds of letters, communications/orders, correspondence, office memorandum, internal notes, reports, replies, comments, objections, rejections, office memorandum, relevant documents, approvals/ objections/ rejections, GOM drafts/ decisions etc despatched between the NAC and Delhi CM Sheila Dixit.”
“It appears that he had filed some eight similar applications in one go. It is not surprising that the CPIO responded in the manner that he did,” the CIC said in a recent order finding no infirmity in the decision of the CPIO and the Appellate Authority. The plea was declined as the collection and the collation of the desired information would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority.
“Government offices maintain the records subject-wise. Correspondence with any outside person or office is made on individual subjects and such information is kept in individual files. Unless the exact subject matter is known, it is impossible for any office to identify the relevant records,” the Central Information Commissionerstated.
And the CIC termed the appeal “as being devoid of merits” and dismissed it. “No CPIO can provide any information if the RTI request is as wide and vague as the above RTI application is,” Mishra noted.