Murder of RTI
& Fundamental Rights by the Punjab & Haryana High Court.
PANCHKULA, 12.04.2017: This is the harrowing tale of miscarriage
of justice which has the potential to defeat the multiple fundamental rights of
the citizens; especially the poor school-going children and their parents. See
How:
Recently, I was approached by a group of citizens aggrieved
with the decision of Education Department, Haryana Information Commission and
finally by single Judge Mr. J. MMS Bedi, for denial of basic information of
private schools which is supplied to the Education Department by private school
while seeking affiliation. In fact the Applicant had sought information about
the set-up and functioning of some private schools like their affiliation
status, availability of rooms, toilets, fire safety etc. the disclosure of such
information is very vital for the
effective and meaningful enjoyment of the Fundamental Right envisaged in the
Article 21-A of the Constitution, i.e. Right to Education read with ‘The Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009’
Being a former Law Officer of the Central
Information Commission I assured the aggrieved citizens that the decision of
the single was not only erroneous but very fatal for the transparency and
accountability because the exacts reasons for dismissal of writ petition were
as follows:
Ø
“The
Petitioner has not expressed as to how he has got an enforceable legal right to
seek the information.
Ø
Neither the Petitioner
clarifies the person who would be entitled to the information nor his petition
discloses as to how the information sought for by him is in relationship to any
public activity or public interest.
Ø
Considering the provisions
of Section 8(1)(f) of Right to Information Act, 2005, it is apparently a
personal information regarding third party which is being sought by the
Petitioner”
I filed Appeal before the
Division Bench which was listed before JJ AJAY KUMAR MITTAL and RAMENDRA
JAIN. The 1st question from J Ajay Kumar Mittal was: “Who are you?”
I told, “I am just an RTI Applicant” “What the purpose of seeking this
information?” I replied “Kindly refer to the Section 6(2) of the RTI Act which
says that the Applicant is not required to give any reason for seeking
information under the RTI Act. Then, I said that probably the information has
been sought to thwart the maladministration in the functioning of the private
schools” Then J Mittal fired question, “Why have you targeted only these three
Schools?” I innocently asked, “Should we guide citizens about which subject
matter they should choose for seeking information and which they should not?”
Then J RAMENDRA JAIN fired the question, “What larger public interest will be
served by seeking such information?” I replied, “RTI Act does not stipulate
that an RTI Application will be filed only in larger public interest” Then AJAY
KUMAR MITTAL fired “Such person are
Black-Mailers” I countered, “There is no material on file to make such
observations”
Then I requested the Mr. J. AJAY
KUMAR MITTAL and RAMENDRA JAIN (My conscience refuses to use other prefix
except Mr. J.) to refer to the provisions of the RTI Act and I argued that even
if for the sake of argument we accept the some information is exempted from
disclosure then in that situation Section – 10 of the RTI Act mandates that :“Where a request for access to information
is rejected on the ground that it is in relation to information which is exempt
from disclosure, then, notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, access
may be provided to that part of the record which does not contain any
information which is exempt from disclosure under this Act..”
The
aforesaid Judges stopped reading the RTI Act and close the file then I argued
that these schools are registered under the THE HARYANA REGISTRATION
AND REGULATION OF SOCIETIES ACT, 2012 and the Section 83 of this Act reads: “All documents filed by a Society with
the District Registrar under the Act shall be deemed to be public documents and
can be accessed by any citizen under the provisions of the Right to Information
Act, 2005. To that extent, every society registered under the Act shall be
deemed to be a public office for the purposes of the said Act and shall be
liable to supply the requisite information against the fee prescribed by the
Society, if any, for that purpose.”
During ongoing arguments J AJAY KUMAR MITTAL
pronounced “DISMISSED” I prayed, “I need opportunity of hearing as the matter
involves the lives of numerous school-going children and their parents” Then J AJAY
KUMAR MITTAL said, “Next Case Please” I picked-up my file a rushed away from
court room in the shocked state of mind. The Law Officers of the Govt. appeared
joyous and I was thinking how can one be happy with killing of multiple
fundamental rights of the hapless school-going children and parents. I wanted
to ask if the private school does not comply with the fire safety don’t citizens
have right to know about it? If the private school is being run without
affiliation, don’t citizens have right to know the status of affiliation before
sending their children to such schools?
I do feel that if such mindsets continue to
be in the judiciary the day is not far when private entities will ruthlessly
murder the citizens with impunity. Only God can save this country. SEE THE
SELF-EXPLANATORY JUDGMENT OF THE FOUNTAINS OF JUSTICE, which says: “Considering the provisions of section
8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, referred to above, the learned Single Judge has rightly
observed that “it is apparently a personal information regarding the third
party which is being sought for by the petitioner...” In our considered
opinion, the finding recorded by the learned Single Judge that the information
sought for by the appellant appears to be not bona fide and is in the nature of
fishing inquiry having no relationship to public activity or public interest”
Judgment Link:
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