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Judgment
By way of this petition, the petitioner seeks the following reliefs :
10.1That, this Hon'ble Court kindly be pleased to direct the respondent authorities to provide the compensation of Rs.25000/- to the petitioner within the period of 30 days from the date of receipt of the order.
10.2Any appropriate writ, direction or order may also kindly be passed in favour of the petitioners, which this Hon'ble Court deems fit in the circumstances of the case.
Brief facts of the case are that the petitioner submitted an RTI application on 12/11/2013 before the Public Information Officer (Deputy S.P., Bilaspur) seeking a copy of FIR No. 513/2013 registered at P.S. Civil Line, Bilaspur. On non-furnishing of the information, the petitioner preferred a First Appeal on 28/01/2014 before Respondent No. 4, which was dismissed without assigning cogent reasons. Being aggrieved, the petitioner approached Respondent No. 2 in Second Appeal (Appeal No. A/794/2014). Vide impugned order dated 21/06/2021, the Second Appellate Authority recorded that the information was provided after an inordinate delay on 20/06/2021 and observed that the subordinate authority had misunderstood the statutory provisions. However, despite these specific findings and oral submissions made by the petitioner seeking penalty and compensation, the Second Appellate Authority failed to pass any order imposing statutory penalty under Section 20 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (in short “the RTI Act”) against the erring officer and ultimately, disposed of the appeal. Hence, this Petition.
Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner submitted an RTI application on 12/11/2013 seeking a copy of an FIR, which is a public document and in no way confidential or restricted under the law. However, the requisite information was supplied only on 20/06/2021 i.e. after an inordinate and unexplained delay of nearly eight years, just one day prior to the passing of the impugned order. She submits that both the First Appellate Authority and the Second Appellate Authority failed to exercise their statutory duties by ignoring the aspect of penalty and compensation despite recording a clear finding of delay and misinterpretation of law by the subordinate officials.
On the other hand, learned State Counsel submits that since the requisite document sought under the RTI Act i.e. the copy of the FIR, has already been furnished to the petitioner, the core grievance stands satisfied and no further cause of action survives for adjudication.
Heard learned counsel for the parties and also perused the documents annexed with the petition carefully.
Considering the fact that the copy of the FIR has already been supplied to the information seeker/petitioner, the primary intent of the RTI Act stands fulfilled. Consequently, no further proceedings are required to be conducted in this matter before this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
Accordingly, the Writ Petition is dismissed.