CHENNAI: Citing a Supreme Court judgment slamming misuse of the RTI Act for 'indiscriminate and impractical' information , the Madras high court has stayed a State Information Commission's showcause notice to the high court registry asking why the latter should not be fined Rs 25,000 for failing to disclose the information sought by an applicant.
A division bench of Justice P Jyothimani and Justice MDuraisamy , concurring with the submissions of the senior advocate and former additional advocate-general A L Somayaji , granted the interim relief to the court's registrar-general , against whom the commission had issued the show-cause notice .
P Kalyanasundaram of Pattalam filed an application under the Madras high court seeking a list of all registers , with index or subjects , and copies of all forms and registers being maintained by the high court . The application was made in January 2009 .After the lapse of the deadline for disclosure of information under the Act, the applicant approached the commission which asked the registrar-general to offer remarks . In April 2010, the commission wanted to know action was taken by the high court on the application .In January 2011, Kalyanasundaram complained to the commission and also sought compensation . In May 2011, the public information officer of the court informed the commission that the information was being collated , and in February this year he sought clarification on the demands of the applicant. In May the officer said the request of the RTI applicant was impossible to comply with as he had sought a copy of all forms , ledgers and registers maintained at the high court. On May 23 , the commission issued a show-cause notice directing the registrar-general to furnish the information sought.
Assailing the notice , the high court registry filed a petition , stating that the request of the applicant was not in accordance with the object of the RTI Act. The notice is liable to be set aside on the ground that indiscriminate and impracticable demand made by Kalyanasundaram cannot be acceded to and that it would severely affect the efficiency of the administration ,itsaid .
The judges said : "It is seen that Kalyanasundaram seeks information in respect of each and every aspect without even specifying the instances and every time , application is being filed seeking production of copies of various records." They then stayed the show-cause notice for a period of eight weeks.
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