Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 20: In a landmark judgment, the State Information Commission (SIC) has held that Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India is a public authority operating within the territorial jurisdiction of J&K directly or through subordinate offices and falls under the purview of the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009, in respect of information that flows and originates from records held by the public authorities within the State.
The judgment has been passed by the Division Bench of the SIC comprising Chief Information Commissioner, G R Sufi and Information Commissioner, Nazir Ahmad in a complaint filed against the Public Information Officer (PIO) of Principal Accountant General Office, Srinagar.
“J&K has a distinctive and distinguishable position in the Union of India in view of a special status conferred on it by Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, hence the State Legislature legislates on the matters which other legislatures in the country do not legislate. In accordance with this Constitutional Status, the State legislature in its judicial competence has passed State RTI Act, 2009, which has brought in its ambit State as well as Central Public Authorities working in the State”, the judgment written by Chief Information Commissioner said.
“The CAG is a constitutional body and as such is a Public Authority, hence J&K State RTI Act, 2009 is applicable to it. The State Information Commission is entrusted with the job of ensuring transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority in the State as enshrined in the preamble of J&K RTI Act 2009”, the judgment said, adding “the Commission has to ensure that right to access the information given to citizens of the State as prescribed in Section 3 of State RTI Act is strictly implemented. Section 6 of State RTI Act elaborates that application can be made to concerned public authority and the concerned public authority has been defined in Section 2(f) of State RTI Act”.
“The Central Information Commission’s decisions, instructions, etc are not binding on the State Information Commission, which is the creation of J&K RTI Act, 2009. Like Central Information Commission, it is an autonomous quasi judicial authority, wherein Chief Commissioner and Commissioners have been appointed by the Governor of the State. Thus the State Information Commission is a distinct and separate body from the Central Information Commission”, the judgment said.
“There is no dispute about the fact that Comptroller & Auditor General fall under the definition of public authority given in the State RTI Act, 2009, which is analogous and akin to definition given in the Central Information Act. Secondly, in both the Acts, there is no clash and conflict. With few variations and exceptions, the provisions of J&K RTI Act, 2009 are the same as that of Central Information Act, 2005”, Chief Information Commissioner said in the judgment, adding “it would be relevant to find the source of information which the complainant had sought. Nature of information as sought by the information seeker clearly shows that information so sought is in the posession of authorities of Comptroller & Auditor General’s office situated within territorial limits of J&K State”.
“The Commission has no objection that people may access information from the Central offices located in the territorial jurisdiction of J&K through Central RTI Act. But if any resident/residents of J&K State want to invoke J&K RTI Act, 2009 and seek information from the public authorities of Central Government functioning or acting within the territorial limits of the J&K and if the information flows and originates within the territorial limits of J&K, same cannot be denied by stating that the State RTI Act, 2009 is not applicable to the Central Government offices operating in J&K”, the judgment said.
The Division Bench of SIC has also observed, “the respondents have nowhere rebutted that the J&K State Legislature has legislative competence to include public authorities established or constituted by or under the Constitution of India or by any law made by Parliament in the definition of Public Authority in Section 2 of the J&K RTI Act, 2009. The reference of the respondent to J&K RTI Rules, 2010 that there was no reference to State Appellate Authorities in those rules and thus by implication that means that the Act is not applicable to the respondents, is bereft of any merit”.
With these observations, the State Information Commission said, “CAG is a Public Authority as defined in Section 2(f) of the J&K RTI Act, 2009 operating within the territorial jurisdiction of J&K directly or through their subordinate offices posted within the territorial limits of J&K and falls under the purview of J&K RTI Act, 2009 in respect of information that flows and originates from records held by these Public Authorities within the State”.
Accordingly, the Commission has directed the concerned designated PIOs for the offices of CAG working in J&K to receive applications from residents of State under Section 6 of the J&K RTI Act, 2009 and dispose them under Section 7 of the Act. Similarly, the designated First Appellate Authorities posted in these offices have been directed to receive and adjudicate appeals filed before them under Section 16 of the J&K RTI Act, 2009.
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