Third party opinion must for RTI info

Delhi high court on Friday interpreted a key provision of the Right To Information Act and said the affected party’s objections must be sought in case an RTI applicant seeks information relating to a third party.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna upheld Section 11 of the RTI Act and said information relating to or issued by a third party should be released under RTI only after examining "whether the information can be treated and regarded as being of a confidential nature, if it relates to a third party or has been furnished by a third party".

When information relates to a third party and can prima facie be regarded and treated as confidential, the procedure under Section 11(1) must be followed, the high court clarified on a plea filed by noted RTI activist and Magsaysay Award winner Arvind Kejriwal.

Arvind Kejriwal had come to court arguing Section 11 of the RTI Act should be interpreted afresh, otherwise it has the potential to defeat the very objective of the parent Act since asking and waiting for objections from every affected party is a tedious process.

The social activist argued that all information relating to or furnished by a third party need not be confidential for various reasons, for instance, it may already be in public domain or in circulation.

In response, the court concluded it’s best to leave it to the judgment of the public information officer concerned if information sought in relation to a third party is confidential or can be treated as confidential by the affected part.