The Delhi High Court has set aside a Central Information Commission (CIC) order that directed the disclosure of information related to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bachelor's degree.
'By extending the definition of 'personal' to include institutions and not just individuals, the State has equipped itself with a tool to block access to most kinds of information.'
Delhi University (DU) has informed the Delhi High Court that it is willing to show its records on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's degree to the court, but not disclose it to "strangers" under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The university's solicitor general, Tushar Mehta, argued that the "right to privacy" superseded the "right to know" in this case, and that allowing disclosure would expose the university to RTI applications for information about lakhs of its students. The court has reserved its verdict on the matter.
University of Delhi on Monday said the purpose of Right to information (RTI) was not to satiate a third party's curiosity as it challenged the central information commission's order over disclosure of information on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's degree.
Disclosing an individual's income-tax returns is tantamount to violating the person's fundamental right to privacy as recognised by the Constitution.
A 36-year-old Indian-origin man has been shot and killed after a teenage boy robbed a convenience store in the United States state of North Carolina, authorities said.
The Madhya Pradesh forest department has refused to provide information under the Right to Information Act on management of cheetahs brought from Africa and their cubs born in India.
Marriage does not do away with the procedural rights of a person to divulge his personal information, a division bench of the high court has said.
Former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer M G Devasahayam, who was one of the signatories to the representation on the credibility of electronic voting machines (EVMs), voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) and the vote-counting process, had filed an application with the poll panel under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, seeking details of the action taken on it.
The RTI also sought the details of the fees paid by the SBI to senior advocate Harish Salve to defend its case against the disclosure of the electoral bonds' records, citing that the records are held in a fiduciary capacity and the information is personal in nature.
An active-duty member of the United States Air Force attempted self-immolation and yelled, 'Free Palestine', outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, on February 25, according to the Air Force and local officials, reported by CNN.
The incident took place in San Mateo on Monday, the police were quoted as saying by the the report.
The Delhi high court said on Friday the purpose of Right to Information (RTI) Act is to bring in transparency, and if any information has been sought, it should be made public unless exempted from disclosure under the law.
Multiple people were killed and injured in a shooting incident reported from the US state of Virginia on Tuesday, officials said adding the shooter is believed to be dead too.
The matter came up before Justice Subramonium Prasad who listed it for hearing on October 16.
The court stated that creating an absolute bar on the disclosure of information to non-citizens would be contrary to the purpose and object of the RTI Act itself, and the same cannot be read into the legislation.
The family, originally from Harsi Pind in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, was kidnapped at a business in Merced County, California, on Monday.
Let the existing collegium system which is functioning not get derailed, the SC observed.
The affidavit was filed in response to a petition seeking a direction to declare the PM CARES Fund a 'State' under the Constitution to ensure transparency in its functioning.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal challenging a single judge's order quashing a plea seeking the agenda of the Supreme Court collegium's meeting on December 12, 2018, when certain decisions were purportedly taken on the elevation of judges to the apex court.
Justice Yashwant Varma issued notice on the challenge to the CIC order by the Income Tax Authority and sought the stand of the RTI applicant Girish Mittal, saying that "the matter requires consideration."
'As CIC, you have the power to comment on policy matters. 'If you have very strong beliefs and you know your rulings will be reported, you will express your beliefs.'
'The Central Public Information Officer is not required to furnish information which requires drawing of inteference and/or making of assumption, or to interpret information, or to solve the problem raised by the applicant, or to furnish replies to hypothetical questions. 'The Information sought does not come under the definition of information as defined in Section 2(f) of RTI Act, 2005. The CPIO has no specific information to provide (sic),' it said.
The report was made public on the eve of the 16th anniversary of the RTI Act after a study of 20 Information Commissions including the Central Information Commission which have put out data on the cases disposed of and penalties levied by them, a statement from the Satark Nagrik Sangathan said.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday dismissed a challenge to the Central Information Commission's order dismissing an RTI appeal seeking the agenda of the Supreme Court collegium's meeting on December 12, 2018, when certain decisions were purportedly taken on elevation of judges to the apex court.
The CIC, the top appellate body in RTI matters, went through the law, orders of the Supreme Court, the Law Commission of India report, submissions of the Central Public Information Officer in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to conclude that the status, nature and functional characteristics of the BCCI fulfil required conditions of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act.
The RTI exemptions cited by the CPIO to deny information relate to intellectual property rights, trade secrets and information in the nature of commercial confidence, fiduciary relationship, threat to life and safety of persons who give information to law enforcement agencies in confidence, impediment to investigation, prosecution or apprehension and privacy of an individual.
The Delhi high court on Friday advanced to December 10 the hearing on pleas to declare the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund a 'State' under the Constitution and a 'public authority' under the Right to Information Act to ensure transparency in its functioning.
In an apparent violation of the Right to Information Act, the Public Information Officer at the Prime Minister's Office has refused to provide information to an applicant, saying he failed to show how it was "useful" to him "either personally, socially or nationally".
Opposing the Centre's stand that the PM CARES Fund was not a government fund, a lawyer told the Delhi High Court Wednesday that there was no factor to show that the fund was private in nature.
The PM CARES Fund is not a Government of India fund and the amount collected by it does not go to the Consolidated Fund of India, the Delhi High Court has been informed.
The disclosure of files provided by India's second army chief General Sir Roy Bucher to Nehru Memorial Museum and Library about Jammu and Kashmir related to the period of 1947-49, which may throw light on Accession, is in 'national interest,' the central information commission has observed in an order.
The Union Health Ministry has said in response to a Right to Information application that it does not know where records related to agenda circulated in meetings of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 are held.
The Association for Democratic Reforms has complained against six major political parties for not appointing Public Information Officers.
The CPIO had rejected the three RTI queries on the ground that the Rs 10 Postal Order meant for fees for providing the information, was blank in one and in the other two cases, they were made out in favour of the CPIO.
The high court was hearing a plea by Samyak Gangwal challenging a June 2 order of the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), PMO, refusing to provide documents sought by him on the ground that PM CARES Fund is not a public authority under the RTI Act.
A three-bench Central Information Commission, has repeatedly questioned the representatives of the 20 members of Parliament whose IT returns were asked for under the Right to Information Act, on how disclosing of their IT returns was not in larger public interest.
Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf traces the journey of PM-CARES from its founding to finally admitting it is not a government fund.
A body discovered in a river in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, has been confirmed to be that of Sunil Tripathi, a 22-year-old Indian American student who went missing on March 16.
The order is is contrary to the Central Information Commission's directive bringing six national parties under the transparency law.
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