Can somebody ask for information not provided in prescribed form?

[avdhesh]

I have a question, if say a public authority provides information in modified form from the original, is it legal in RTI? What are the provision regarding this?
As I heard that information provided by one officer was modified and then given.

[kushal]

There has been judgement of CIC regarding this. With the answer it will be amply clear about in which form the information be provided.

“Transparency in functioning of public authorities is expected to be
ensured through the exercise of right to know, so that a citizen can
scrutinize the fairness and objectivity of every public action. This objective
cannot be achieved unless the information that is created and generated
by public bodies is disclosed in the form in which it exists with them.
Therefore, an information is to be provided in the form in which it is
sought, u/s 7(9) of the Act. And, if it does not exist in the form in which it
is asked for and provided to the applicant, there is no way that proper
scrutiny of public action could be made to determine any deviations from
the established practices or accepted policies.”

[avdhesh]

thank you Kushal. That was really cool

[maneesh]

The term modified has to be understood in the correct context.

The information is nothing but the facts of proceeding of public authority. If in the proceeding some third party information comes in picture naturally, the public authority will omit that part and provide information.
If that is considred as modified then it can be YES / NO depending on the facts of the case.

[snkmoorthy]

information can be modified and provided; as long as its accuracy and content are not affected; depending on the question framed by the information seeker, a gist of the document can be provided by the PA. it is upto the information seeker to frame questions in such a way that maximum information can be elicited.