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Judgment
Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned GA-7 for the State.
The petitioners have moved the Court for the following relief:
"That this is an application for issuance of an appropriate writ/ writ(s)/ order(s)/ direction(s) directing the respondent authorities to provide the information's sought for by the petitioners with respect to certain facts from the offices of District Mining Offices of Patna and Sheikhpura under the provision of Right to Information Act duly submitted along with all the requisite fees but the same have not been supplied to them and instead they have been told in written that all the information have been lost by the office with a purpose to save their skins from the illegal acts done by them and further for directing them to provide all those documents to the petitioners which are must for disclosure of the activities of those offices and further for any other relief(s) for which the petitioners may found entitled to.
The petitioners are aggrieved by the reply given to them under the Right to Information Act (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act'), by which the appellate authority has refused to furnish the information relating to settlement of sand ghats till the year 2014-15 on the ground that records are not available.
Learned counsel for the State submitted that the petitioners have remedy by way of second appeal before the State Information Commission, which the petitioners are required to exhaust. Further, it was submitted that if the records are not available, it is open to the petitioners to move under the common law with regard to the disappearance/non-location of the records, copy of which they had sought under the Act.
Faced with the situation, learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the matter be disposed off with liberty to the petitioners to take recourse to the legal provisions before the appropriate authority/forum.
In view thereof, the writ petition stands disposed off with liberty to the petitioners to move before the appropriate authority/forum under the existing law/statute with regard to non-providing of the information sought by them on the ground of records having gone missing.