RTI Court Decision: SC seeks Allahabad HC registry response on RTI rules row

[Sajib Nandi]

Reported by Dnaindia.com on Jul 17, 2012
SC seeks Allahabad HC registry response on RTI rules row - India - DNA

The Supreme Court today sought the Allahabad High Court Registry's response on a PIL challenging the provisions of RTI rules framed by it for divulging information to the public as being unconstitutional and ultra-vires of the 2005 transparency law.

A bench of Justice AK Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar issued a notice to the registry on the plea of NGO, Common Cause, which has sought the quashing of Rules 3, 4, 5, 20, 25, 26, 27 of the Allahabad High Court (Right to Information) Rules, 2006.

The petitioner NGO has also sought directions to the high court of Allahabad and the subordinate courts within its jurisdiction to follow the Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules 2006 framed by the central government.

Appearing for Common Cause, advocate Prashant Bhushan said the rules framed by the high court on its administrative side not only "have the effect of abridging and infringing the right to information" but also "violate Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution".

Initially, the court had asked the petitioner to approach the high court on the judicial side but after the counsel pointed out that similar rules of the Delhi High Court was also under challenge, the bench agreed to issue the notice.

In its petition, the NGO has said the Allahabad High Court's RTI Rules, 2006, framed for processing RTI applications, deviate from the letter and spirit of the transparency law.

It said the high court has "unduly restricted" the information that can be sought per application, fixed Rs500 as the fee to be deposited with every RTI application and Rs15 as the amount to be paid for every page of information, etc.

[Sajib Nandi]

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Reported by Timesofindia.indiatimes.com on Jul 18, 2012
'Each RTI application to Allahabad HC costs Rs 500' - The Times of India

NEW DELHI: The average per capita income of a person in Uttar Pradesh may be Rs 70 per day, but if s/he had a question on state judiciary under the Right to Information (RTI) Act then the applicant has to pay Rs 500.

A PIL complaint to the Supreme Court that excessive fee demanded under the new RTI rules framed by the Allahabad High Court to entertain an RTI plea was hindering citizen's right to know and requested for its quashing.

A bench of Justice A K Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notice on the PIL filed by NGO 'Common Cause' after hearing advocate Prashant Bhushan, who said given the average per capita income a person needed to spend his entire week's earning to file an RTI query in the HC or district court.The new rules of the HC said: "Each application shall be accompanied by cash or draft or pay order of Rs 500 drawn in favour of the Registrar General, High Court, Allahabad, or the district judge of the district court concerned as the case might be."The NGO said the Centre in April, 2011, had issued a notification asking the states and competent authorities to review their Fee Rules and fix the RTI application fee in consonance with the charge prescribed by the Union government in the Right to Indomation (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005, under which the application fee prescribed was Rs 10.The Supreme Court has accepted the fee prescribed by the Union government, but repeated requests by the Central Information Commission to the HC for revising the hefty fees had not yielded any result, the petitioner said.

"Rule 4 and 5 of the Allahabad HC (RTI) Rules, 2006, made in pursuance of Section 28 of RTI Act, 2005, prescribe an exorbitant fee of Rs 500 and impose an inflated cost of Rs 15 per page of information to be supplied, thus impeding the access to information for the cast majority of the population that is not economically advanced," it added.

[Sajib Nandi]

Reported by Neha Shukla in Timesofindia.indiatimes.com on Feb 14, 2013
RTI rules of Allahabad high court proposed to be amended - The Times of India

LUCKNOW: Seeking information from the Allahabad High Court is likely to get cheaper, and the information seekers might have to pay only Rs 10 to get information from the court, as laid down in the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. The registrar general of the Allahabad High Court also said that the RTI rules of the court are proposed to be amended.

In a response sent to an RTI activist DK Dixit, the registrar general of the Allahabad High Court has said that the rule 4 of the Allahabad High Court (Right to Information) rules, which has fixed Rs 500 as the RTI fee has been proposed to be amended. The 'high' amount of RTI fee charged by the court has made activists demand the repealing of the RTI rules of the court and enforcing the fee of Rs 10 for every RTI application. The registrar general of Allahabad High Court Anant Kumar said the court has considered the letter by Dixit, which highlighted anomalies in the RTI fee structure of the court.

In one of the hearings in the Central Information Commission (CIC), New Delhi in June 2012, the public information officers (PIOs) of the Allahabad High Court had also informed about the modification of the RTI rules of the court. The officials had said that the Allahabad High Court has already modified its RTI rules and sent them to the government for publication in the official gazette. The amended rules, officers said, are pending with the state government for notification in the official gazette.

UP government, on September 20, 2006, notified the Allahabad High Court (Right to Information) Rules, 2006. The high court has been charging Rs 500 as an RTI fee since then. Delhi-based RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agarwal had filed a complaint in CIC against the higher fee structure of the Allahabad High Court. CIC, in the past as well, has made several observations about the fee structure of the high court, expecting that the court would revise rules and make it more conducive for people.

The high court, in June 2012 hearing had informed CIC that amended rules are pending with the state government. The department of personnel and training (DoPT) on April 26, 2011, had written to the chief secretaries of all the states, registrars of all high courts and registrar of the Supreme Court to charge Rs 10 from the RTI applicants as fee as laid down in the Act