Using RTI to address the issue of illegal broadcasting by a news channel
19 Jan, 2013Background
The appellant had approached the Leaders of Opposition in both the houses of the Parliament drawing their attention to some illegal broadcasting by a particular news channel. Later he filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Lok Sabha Secretariat and the Rajya Sabha seeking to know whether the respective Leader of Opposition in the two houses had raised these issues in the Parliament or not. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided some information but did not clearly state whether this matter had been raised through any question in the respective house of the Parliament.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the respondent pointed out that all the questions raised by any Member of Parliament (MP) were freely available in the website of the respective house of the Parliament as well as in the homepage of each MP.
View of CIC
The Commission directed the PIO to inform to the appellant if the Leader of opposition had raised any question on the issues brought to their notice by the appellant through his letters. If any such question had been raised then a copy of that question along with the answer received should be given to the appellant.
Citation: Mr. Bablu Kumar v. Lok Sabha Secretariat and the Leader of Opposition in File No. CIC/SM/A/2012/001210 & 1135
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/975
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission