The Central Information Commission has dismissed as 'frivolous and inconsequential' an RTI application seeking information pertaining to decades-old records of students who passed a competitive examination.

The Commission was hearing an appeal by one Anand Prakash Tripathi who had approached the Indian Institute of Technology seeking a 20-year-old record of students that had qualified the Joint Entrance Examination with details including their age, caste and mark sheets.

"Even a casual look at the long list of varied information asked for by the appellant would make it clear that the information asked for is frivolous and even bordering on the absurd," said Information Commissioner O P Kejriwal.

The CIC, which outlined the objectives of the Right To Information Act as to bring transparency in the functioning of the public offices, said 'such diverse and lengthy information seems to be designed only to put the public authorities under undue and uncalled for pressure'.

It, however, appreciated the efforts on part of IIT to collect the maximum possible information.

Tripathi's information application, which was initially filed before Ministry of Human Resource Development in July last year, was later transferred to the IIT.

Dissatisfied with the response received, Tripathi filed an appeal before the Commission, but was neither present nor did he send any representative at the hearing.