The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday ordered issue of notices to the State government and the State Public Information Officer of the High Court (SPIO-HC) on a petition which has questioned rejection of an application filed under the Right to Information Act, 2005 by the SPIO-HC stating that the information sought is contrary to the rules, as it contains more than 150 words.
Justice B. Veerappa passed the order on a petition filed by M. Veerabhadraiah, a city-based advocate, who has questioned the legality of the communication, dated November 24, 2018 from the SPIO-HC.
“...it is noticed that information sought for by you contains more than 150 words, which is not in accordance with the Rule 14 of the Karnataka Right to Information Rules, 2005....” the SPIO-HC had stated in the response given to petitioner, who had sought certain information and documents in relation to the process of selection of 18 advocates, who were designated as senior counsel under the Advocates Act by the High Court recently.
Rule 14 of the Karnataka RTI Rules states that “a request in writing for information under section 6 of the [RTI] Act shall relate to one subject matter and it shall not ordinarily exceed one hundred and fifty words...”
The petitioner said it is not possible for the applicants to ascertain whether the information that they are seeking contains only prescribed number of words as they are not the custodians of the documents under the public authorities. Also, it has been claimed in the petition the the restriction imposed in the rules is contrary to the purpose of the RTI Act itself.
The petitioner has sought a direction from the court to either strike down Rule 14 or declare that this rule is not mandatory in nature, and quash the communication of the SPIO-HC.
