life or liberty of a person under section 7(1) of RTI act

**drrajiv_nimisha** · 11-01-2009, 11:17 PM

sir
i am doctor in safdarjung hospital as senior resident in ENT. My job is terminated suddenly without any previous information. I shouted to CPIO and appallete authority under life and liberty to give me cause of temination and inspection of my file.. but both have replied that the infomation asked by me does not pertains to life and liberty. therefor, CPIO office will send you the reply in normal course and duration i.e with in 30 days.
my quiry is what is meaning of life or liberty. my condition is not suitable for leberty. if someone has terminated from his lob suddenly without any information if this condition is not under life and liberty? next to this condition is death of a person.
thanking you

dr rajeev kumar

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**jps50** · 11-01-2009, 11:57 PM

Sponsorer

Termination of service cannot be treated as life and liberty problem. Even in other serious cases, this clause has hardly been upheld by CIC. Even at present there is no system in place at PA or SIC or CIC level to comply with such speed.

**jayeshbheda** · 11-01-2009, 11:57 PM

I can understand your frustration about sudden suspension and you may feel like next to death.

However, in my view, the given circumstances does not warrant the invocation of the section 7(1).

In the matter of N.N. Kalia vs University of Delhi, the CIC passed following observation about section 7(1), which might help you to understand the provision better.

Proviso of Section 7(1) ... has to be applied only in exceptional cases..Whether the information sought concerns the life and liberty of a person has to be carefully scrutinized and only in a very limited number of cases this ground can be relied upon. The government machinery is not designed in a way that responses to all RTI Applications can be given within forty-eight hours. A broad interpretation of ‘life and liberty’ would result in a substantial diversion of manpower and resources ..

The life and liberty provision can be applied only in cases where there is an imminent danger to the life and liberty of a person and the non-supply of the information may either lead to death or grievous injury to the concerned person. Liberty of a person is threatened if she or he is going to be incarcerated or has already been incarcerated and the disclosure of the information may change that situation. If the disclosure of the information would obviate the danger then it may be considered under the proviso of Section 7(1). The imminent danger has to be demonstrably proven. The Commission is well aware of the fact that when a citizen exercises his or her fundamental right to information, the information disclosed may assist him or her to lead a better life. But in all such cases, the proviso of Section 7(1) cannot be invoked unless imminent danger to life and liberty can be proven.

**karira** · 11-02-2009, 07:07 PM

Just a small correction:

It is "Life or Liberty" and not "Life and Liberty"

**P.Suresh** · 06-23-2011, 07:54 PM

The cause represented definitely makes all the difference in life.

The cause definitely warrants inclusion under L/L. But, CIC has different views.

* Can't this forum take up this cause?
* Alternately, if this cannot be accommodated in section 7(1), there should be means to fast track this request.
* Can't we have an amendment, say section 7(1-a) or something like that and say that the time limit is not 48 hours, but say 168 hours (i.e. 7 days) or so?