Vested Interest?

Even as courts pass orders saying that disclosure of interest is needed when an applicant seeks personal information under the Act, experts are concerned that such orders defeat its very objective

THE Delhi High Court recently observed that whenever information is sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, disclosure of interest would be necessary only when the applicant seeks personal information.

The order was passed as a clarification of the Court’s earlier order which said that “whenever information is sought under the RTI Act, disclosure of an interest in the information sought would be necessary to establish the bonafides of the applicant”. The order was passed by a single bench led by Justice Prathiba M Singh while dealing with a petition seeking information regarding appointments for Multi-tasking Staff of Presidential Estate, Rashtrapati Bhawan.

In its earlier order, the bench had observed that on a query from the petitioner, it was revealed that his daughter had applied for an appointment as MultiTasking Staff in the Presidential Estate. However, this fact was not disclosed in the petition. Moreover, a perusal of it revealed that the petitioner himself had worked in the Presidential Estate on an ad-hoc basis from 2012-2017.

The bench hence observed: “The present writ petition is cleverly quiet about the fact that the Petitioner’s daughter had applied for being considered for appointment for the post of Multi-Tasking Staff at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The seeking of the above information, especially after the Petitioner’s daughter did not obtain employment, clearly points to some ulterior motives.”