New Delhi, Feb 4 The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for its failure to publicise information on its legislative records, proceedings of the house and resolutions even after 20 years of the enactment of the RTI Act
A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia observed that section 4 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act cast a mandate on the public authorities to publicise such information on their own so that there was minimum resort to the procedure under the RTI Act, and MCD could not be given any exemption in this regard.
The court was hearing a PIL by NGO Centre for Youth, Culture, Law and Environment seeking uploading of the MCD's legislative records, proceedings of the house, resolution passed by the standing committees and all other public information on its website in a time-bound manner.
Counsel for the MCD assured the court that corrective measures would be undertaken by the authorities as the issue of uploading such information was under the consideration of the competent authority.
He said the "process" to upload the information was "underway at the corporation level" but the same would take some time.
"Thanks to you for undertaking this exercise after 20 years. We are so thankful," retorted the bench.
"(And) What process? You are required to upload this information within 120 days and then on a regular interval. What have you been doing? This Act (RTI Act) was passed in 2005. It is 20 years down the line," the bench further said.
The court directed the MCD to file an affidavit in response to the petition and state what steps had been taken to implement section 4 of the RTI Act for providing information to the public by publishing it.
"The purpose of mandating public authorities under section 4 of the Act is apparent - that by publishing such information the public will have minimum resort to the use of the Act as the information shall be provided suo motu to by the public authorities. No exception in this regard can be granted to any authority including the MCD," the court observed.
The petitioner told the court that in a response to an RTI application, the MCD has stated that no such record had been updated on its website till now since the work to "update" its website going on after the unification of the three erstwhile municipal bodies.
The court was further informed that in the reply, MCD took a stand that there were no rules or guidelines that governed the publication of its resolutions on its official website as it was governed by the section 86 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act.
The court stated that section 86 had nothing to do with dissemination of information and particulars to the public.
"Accordingly, it is apparent that the statutory mandate and the duty cast on the MCD by Section 4 of the RTI Act has yet not been followed even after lapse of 20 years," the court said.
The court said it had only formed a prima facie opinion at this stage and listed the matter for further hearing in April.
The petitioner said the issue concerned millions of people residing in Delhi.
"If they are so sure of the budget, why can't they upload the budget for the upcoming year on the website?" he asked.
The court said the budget would be uploaded only once it was passed by the house, and added "we should achieve what is legally permissible and possible".
