Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(TIC),
Secretariat Annexe Building, ……….Respondent No.
Pt. Nehru Complex, 25
Agartala - 799 006
Tripura West.
Telephone : +0381 – 2318021
Email: Tripura.info123@gmail.com
……….Respondent No. 3
(5)
……….Respondent No. 4
Central Information Commission
CIC Bhawan, Baba Gang Nath Marg,
Staff Quarters, Old JNU Campus,
Munirka, New Delhi, Delhi 110067
To,
6. Occupation Lawyer
The Right to Information Act, 2005, vide its Section 6(1), entitles
(7)
Since the Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1040 of 2019 (Pravasi Legal
Cell v. Union of India & Ors), involving identical issue of creation
of online RTI portal by the State Governments is pending
consideration before this Hon’ble Court, the petitioner has not
moved to the Respondent Nos. 4 to 28 for the relief.
has been launched. This is a facility for the Indian Citizens to file
RTI applications and first appeals online and also to make
payment of RTI fees online. To begin with, this facility is
available only for Department of Personnel and Training
(DoPT)……..
All the requirements for filing an RTI application and first appeal
as well as other provisions regarding time limit, exemptions etc.,
as provided in the RTI Act, 2005 shall continue to apply.”
4. The DoPT launched its web portal, namely, RTI Online with url
https://rtionline.gov.in to facilitate the Citizens to file their RTI
applications and first appeals online and also to make online
payment of the fee for RTI applications and copies. A true copy of
the Office Memo dated 22.04.2013 is Annexure P-2 at Pg. Nos.
19-20.
5. Thereafter, the RTI Web Portal facility was extended to all the
Ministries/Departments of the Central Government. A true copy of
the Office Memo dated 12.08.2013 is Annexure P-3 at Pg. Nos.
21-22.
12. That it may be mentioned that Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1040 of
2019 (Pravasi Legal Cell v. Union of India & Ors) has been
filed in this Hon’ble Court with the following prayer:-
13. That the above WP (Civil) No. 1040 of 2019 has been
entertained by this Hon’ble Court and the following order has
been passed on 26.08.2019:
“Heard the learned senior counsel for the petitioner. Let notice
be issued in the matter. Dasti service, in addition, is
permitted.”
14. In successive judgments, this Hon’ble Court has held that the
Right to Information is a “fundamental right” and flows
from Article 19(1)(a) (the freedom of speech and expression)
and Article 21 (right to life and liberty) of the Constitution of
India. The Courts of the country have declared in a plethora
of cases that transparency is the key for the functioning of a
healthy democracy. In the matter of State of UP v. Raj Narain,
AIR 1975 SC 865, a constitution bench of this Hon’ble Court
held that:
15. In the case of S.P. Gupta v. President of India and Ors, AIR
1982 SC 149, a 7 Judge Bench of this Hon’ble Court made
the following observations regarding the Right to
( 14 )
Information:
20. A person seeking information under the RTI Act from the
PIO of any High Court or to any Court subordinate thereto, at
present, has to make a physical application and cannot do so
through any electronic means. Also, the applicant will have to
obtain a postal order by visiting the post office and paying the
requisite fee for such an application. Then the applicant is
supposed to send the physical application to the concerned
( 17 )
GROUNDS
A. BECAUSE for seeking RTI information, an applicant is
exempt from paying any application fee vide S.7(5), proviso,
of the RTI Act, if the applicant is a holder of Below Poverty
Line (“BPL”) Card while other applicants are to pay on the
Rs. 10/- but if such applicants are denied information, they
are to travel several hundred kilometers to appear before the
SICs, which are generally located in the capital towns of the
States.
I. BECAUSE the hearings before the SICs are quite short and
mostly they do not involve complicated questions of law and
facts.
S. BECAUSE the Petitioner has not filed any other petition for
similar or same reliefs before any Court, including this
Hon’ble court.
22. That the present petitioner has not filed any other petition in
any High Court or the Supreme Court of India on the subject
matter of the present petition.
PRAYER
v) Any other suitable order/s as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit
and necessary in light of the facts and circumstances of the
case and in the interest of justice.
Filed by
(E.C. Agrawala)
Counsel for the Petitioner
48, Lawyers’ Chambers
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi-110 201
DEPONENT
VERIFICATION:
I, the above named Deponent, do hereby verify that the contents of the
( 24 )
DEPONENT