RTI applicants paying Rs 500 for info from Allahabad HC

Business Standard, 22, June,2012

New Delhi :  RTI applicants seeking information from Allahabad High Court are shelling out Rs 500 for each piece of information as the Uttar Pradesh government has not notified reduced fee recommended by the High Court in the Gazette. 

This came to light during a hearing at the Central Information Commission where Allahabad High Court officials conceded that they have reduced the fee rules but the state government had not notified it resulting in continuation of higher fee. According to RTI Act, public authorities can frame rules regarding fee. The central government has fixed Rs 10 as fee for each RTI application but Allahabad High Court and other authorities had fixed huge fee for furnishing of information which came under criticism from the CIC also. Seeing the variance in the fee prescribed by the public authorities, the Department of Personnel and Training had asked the state and central public authorities to review their fee rules and bring them in consonance with the fee prescribed by Government of India. Following the instructions, Allahabad High Court had amended its rules and sent it to the state government for notification which did not happen. "Allahabad High Court had revisited its rules and the amended rules were pending with the Uttar Pradesh government for notification in the Gazette," Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra observed while hearing the petition by activist Subhash Agrawal. He said although the high court has been reminding the   state government to publish the rules urgently, it is rather strange that the UP government should be taking so much time to publish the same in their Gazette.