RTI Court Decision: Prisoners can seek info under RTI

[Sajib Nandi]

Reported by Neha Shukla in Timesofindia.indiatimes.com on Jun 27, 2012
Prisoners can seek info under RTI - The Times of India

LUCKNOW: Being a prisoner does not stop one from being the citizen of India. And, as far as one is the citizen of India, one can always seek information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The order passed by UP state Information Commission says that it is well within the right of the convicts and undertrials to use RTI and seek information.

The aim of the RTI Act is to ensure transparency and accountability in the functioning of public authority. "The RTI Act is a guaranteed right under section 19 of the Indian Constitution. And, a prisoner can seek information using the guaranteed right about the facilities being made available to him in the jail," observed information commissioner Brijesh Kumar Mishra.

The order was passed in the matter pertaining a convict, Gulab, in the central jail, Varanasi, who had sought information from model jail, Lucknow on March 28, 2011 about the facilities being extended to prisoners in the jail. In response the senior superintendent of jails, informed the info seeker that his application was against the law.

The superintendent of jail asked the prisoner to send his application through a rightful channel, as seeking information under the RTI Act, and sending an application directly to the superintendent, was against the law, on the count of him being a prisoner. The prisoner, later, filed a complaint with the commission.

In the commission, too, the jail authorities maintained that there are rules laid down in the UP Jail Manual, about the manner in which a prisoner can do correspondence. "In this case, the prisoner has directly sent the letter to the superintendent, seeking information under RTI, which is against the rules," said the jail authorities.

The commissioner, in his order, ruled that the RTI Act has an over-riding effect on the rules laid down in the Jail Manual. The commissioner directed the superintendent of jails to provide the information to the prisoner within three weeks.

Besides, he also wrote to the DG (Prisons) asking directing him to ensure that prisoners are allowed to use their right to information, as has been laid down in the RTI Act.

[jetley]

Sponsorer

This order may contain useful citations. Many PIOs and FAAs use their departmental rules to refuse information to applicants under RTI Act. The citations from these orders will be useful to counter that.

If anyone has access to copy of the decision, plz upload it here