Difficulty in collating information cannot be the grounds for denying details sought under the Right to Information Act, the Delhi High Court has observed.
In a judgment on May 2, Justice Subramonium Prasad said that a public authority cannot justify denying any information to an applicant under the Act by claiming that the details were not available in a single place and that would take time to collate it.
“Efforts have to be made by the department to collate the information and then give it to the respondent,” the court held.
Prasad observed that the objective of the Right to Information Act was to ensure transparency in the functioning of government departments and that this mandate cannot be obstructed by state governments.
The judgment came on a petition filed by the Delhi government against an order of the Central Information Commission.
The commission had asked the state government to provide information under the Act to applicant Prabhjot Singh Dhillon regarding…