public interest
Arka Foundation
(Querist) 07 February 2011
This query is : Resolved
Dear All,
In reply to earlier post
How to establish public interest on individuals
http://www.lawyersclubindia.com/experts/details.asp?mod_id=155971
Questions asked in RTI about govt servant[498a FIL's/MIL's]
1)Dowry declaration
2)Declaration on movable and immovable proeprtiies including his/her family members
3)serive records
the above questions dont have public interest.
If so how to establish the same
K.S.Srinivas
(Expert) 04 August 2011
What is “Public Interest”? wrt rti act.
In the Indian context, and especially in the context of the RTI Act, 2005, a significant judgment of the Supreme Court of India can be taken note of in understanding the term “public interest”.
In ‘S. P. Gupta v President of India’, AIR 1982 SC 149, Justice Bhagwati, in referring to ‘public interest’, maintained:
“Redressing public injury, enforcing public duty, protecting social, collective, ‘diffused’ rights and interests vindicate public interest… [in the enforcement of which] the public or a class of the community have pecuniary interest or some interest by which their legal rights or liabilities are affected.”
In State of Gujarat v Mirzapur Moti Kureshi Kasab Jamat & others AIR 2006 Supreme Court 212, the Apex Court held “the interest of general public (public interest) is of a wide import covering public order, public health, public security, morals, economic welfare of the community, and the objects mentioned in Part IV of the Constitution [i.e. Directive Principles of State Policy]”.
One of the decisions of the Central Information Commission also throws some light on this term. Public interest includes “disclosure of information that leads towards greater transparency and accountability” [in the working of a public authority] (Decision No. CIC/OK/A/2006/00046, dt. 02.05.2006).
