Orissa High Court pulls up State Information Commission, sets aside its order for ‘non application of mind’

The Orissa High Court has reprimanded the State Information Commission for quashing a Right to Information (RTI) appeal, describing the decision as a result of “non-application of mind.”

The Court ruled that the RTI proceeding’s dismissal was unjustified, stating that “the ground on which the RTI proceeding has been dropped, being the outcome of non-application of mind, is liable to be set aside.”

Advertisement

“The Commission allowed its finding to be entrapped in officialdom and red tapism, which are illegitimate tools to fall back, to deny response to an application under the RTI Act, 2005 and thereby render the provisions nugatory”, the Single Bench judge Justice V Narasingh ordered in the ruling, slamming the quasi-judicial body

The petitioner, Hemanta Nayak, had approached the Court after the public information officers in Bhadrak district failed to reply to his request for information about an encroached community pond. The State Information Commission had dismissed the case, citing non-availability of the sought information.

Considering the manner in which the petitioner was embroiled in unavoidable litigation in seeking information, it is directed that the Tahasildar, Bhadrak shall be liable to pay cost of Rs fifty thousand to the petitioner on or before 9 December, 2025.

The stand taken by the State and readily accepted by the Information Commission that point wise reply was supplied is “dehors the records”. In the face of communications, the ground urged by the authorities that such representation is not available only exemplifies apathy of the highest order, the order stated.

The petitioner was informed with respect to his first appeal that information sought by him “is not available as per submission of Dealing Assistant, in the Encroachment Department.”

The aggrieved petitioner later preferred Second Appeal and in response thereto the Law Officer of the Odisha Information Commission, Bhubaneswar was intimated that the questions as raised by the petitioner have been complied point wise and supplied in his favour.

“It is indeed baffling that on one hand the State functionaries are taking a stand that such representation of the petitioner in respect of which action taken report is being sought for RTI, through Act, 2005 is not received but in the same breath it is stated that point wise reply has been provided,”Justice Narasingh said while noting the contradiction in the State’s response.

Such a patent contradictory stand escaped the scrutiny of the State Information Commission. In passing the order, the State Information Commission mechanically accepted the stand of the State authorities, failing to take notice of the patent contradictions in their stand and also failed to appreciate that if such stand of the State authorities is accepted at their face value as in the case at hand without due scrutiny, right of a citizen to get information as codified by Act, 2005 would be a dead letter and it will set at naught the very purpose for which the Act has been enacted “to contain corruption and to hold Government and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed”, Justice Narasingh noted in the strongly-worded order.

The matter is remitted back to the State Information Commissioner to be heard and decided afresh on merits in the light of the observations, after giving opportunity of hearing to all concerned.

The application shall be disposed of as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of 45 days, the order concluded.