Grounds of Rejection of an RTI

Grounds of Rejection

It is imperative to know the grounds on which an RTI can be rejected.  The RTI Act lays down the grounds on which and RTI can be rejected under Section 8(1), Section 9, Section 11 and Section 24. 

An Application can be rejected if it is incomplete in any respect.

Section 8(1)

Under Section 8(1), an application can be rejected in case of disclosure of information which:

a) would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence;

b) has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court;

c) would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature;

d) includes commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information;

e) would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law 

enforcement or security purposes;

f) would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders;

 

g) is information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information;

h) is information received in confidence from foreign Government;

Cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers;

i) The explanations given by the Council of Ministers to not provide the information has to be made public after the completion of the matter.

Further, matters which come under the exemptions specified shall also be not disclosed. 

Information which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy will not be disclosed unless the Central Public Information Officer or any other appellate authority is satisfied that it is in public interest to disclose the information.

Section 9

Under Section 9, an application can be rejected if:

Without affecting to the provisions of section 8, a Central Public Information Officer or a State Public Information Officer may reject a request for information which would involve an infringement of copyright subsisting in a person other than the State.

Section 11

Under Section 11, an application can be rejected if:

Where a Central Information Officer or a State Public Information Officer intends to disclose the information supplied by a third party and has been treated as confidential by that third party, then the officer within five days from the receipt of the request, give a written notice to such third party of the request and invite the third party to make a submission in writing or orally, regarding whether the information should be disclosed, and such submission will be considered while taking a decision about disclosure of information:

Provided that except in the case of trade or commercial secrets protected by law, disclosure may be allowed if the public interest in disclosure outweighs in importance any possible harm or injury to the interests of such third party.

Section 24

Security and Intelligence organizations are exempted from this Act

But the information pertaining to the allegations of corruption and human rights violations shall not be excluded under this and in the case of information sought for is in respect of allegations of violation of human rights, the information shall only be provided after the approval of the Central Information Commission and such information shall be provided within forty-five days from the date of the receipt of request.

The Central Government may include or exclude any intelligence or security organization by a notification in the official gazette and nothing specified in this section will be applicable to such organisations. But information in relation to corruption and human rights violation shall not be excluded and information sought in respect of violation of human rights will be provided after the approval of the State Information Commission.