Can I get the copies of my own letter from CPIO?

[crusader]

Can I get the copies of the letter I had submitted to the Municipal authorities, as I had lost the information and want to know what all communications I had made to the autorities?

[prema]

Yes, I think you can get the information , as it is a public document once you had submitted.

[kushal]

No! According to CIC.

The purpose of the RTI Act is to allow access to a citizen to information held by a public authority. The key element is provision of information . Insofar as an information is held by a citizen himself, it must be construed that he already had access to such information and his seeking the same from a public authority is a wholly infructuous exercise. In such cases, it should suffice if the public authority intimates to the appellant whether or not his/her letters/petitions had been received by that public authority and the dates thereof. If he wants to have copies of his own letters written to the public authority , he better looks up his own records. In all such cases, the key information to be transmitted to an information -seeker, when such information pertains to the copies of letters he himself might have written to public authority , is that the public authority was or was not in possession of those letters/petitions. The public authority has no obligation beyond supplying the above-mentioned information to the information -seeker.


Kindly read the judgment about this issue.

[crusader]

Thank You Kushal for the great and prompt information .

[brijeshbhatt]

Thanks Kushal for your educative reply!

[maneesh]

Good Job Kushal

[snkmoorthy]

a copy of your own letter is not 'information' and hence it cannot be supplied by a PIO . however he can acknowledge the receipt of your letter.

[wagh7]

SIRS,

If some letters submitted to any department is a public information , then the same letters not accessable to the person who submitted these letters/documents?

Because, suppose assume a situation that the person submitted the documents to any department and kept a copy of it with him. Due to any reason if he lost the documents which he kept with him . Under the circumstances he can take the documents from that department by asking under RTI , I think in the application it self he should mention the facts about the reason for his asking?

I put my views on the topic.

Respected experts and friends, kindly guid me also in this regard.

rakatkam.

[maneesh]

Dear Rakatkam
RTI does not require reason for information . Further, if the applicant cannot keep the information safe Govt cannot be used as storage and retrieving place. The objecting of RTI is to promote transparency and efficiency and preserve limited fiscal resource.
The judgment which Kushal has given and notes by snmoorhty clarifies the point.

[sunaabhsarkar]

Originally Posted by maneesh

Dear Rakatkam
RTI does not require reason for information . Further, if the applicant cannot keep the information safe Govt cannot be used as storage and retrieving place. The objecting of RTI is to promote transparency and efficiency and preserve limited fiscal resource.
The judgment which Kushal has given and notes by snmoorhty clarifies the point.

Hello every body,

In the above circumstance, I guess the person who wants copies or contents of documents he has submitted with the PA, he may do so by requesting a family member or a friend to file an RTI application seeking information on the subject [he may or may not be able to get the contents of the letter, but he would be able to know, if such and such person has submitted such and such document and what is the contents of such an such document etc ect.... I'm not sure how ethical or fruitful the move would be, but surely worth a try in an environment where ethics has taken a back seat.

Sunaabh