PM Modi's Suit Auction: Delhi High Court Dismisses Plea Against CIC's Refusal To Impose Penalty For Belated Supply Of Information

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea against an order passed by Chief Information Commission (CIC) refusing to impose penalty on a CPIO for providing belated information in response to an RTI application related to auction of a suit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Calling the plea moved by one Hans Raj Jain as misconceived, Justice Yashwant Varma observed that the petitioner failed to establish a case which would have warranted the CIC to impose the penalty.

Jain had approached the high court against an order passed by CIC on July 30 last year in terms of which the commission, while taking note of the fact that the information sought was duly provided, proceeded to caution the concerned CPIO for the delay caused in responding to the RTI application.

Jain had moved an RTI application seeking information regarding the details of the auction, the source of the suit and if any tax was paid in its purchase.

Appearing in person, Jain submitted that there was a delay of 390 days in providing information in his RTI plea. He also stated since delay had occurred in the disposal of his plea, CIC was bound to levy penalty envisaged under the RTI Act.

It was Jain's case that having failed to impose the penalty on the concerned official, the commission had acted contrary to the law.

The court said that it was unable to sustain Jain's submission in view of the language employed in section 20 of the Act which provides for the penalties to be imposed by the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission at the time of deciding any complaint or appeal. It also observed that there is no automatic imposition of penalty.

"It is manifest from reading of the aforesaid provision that the commission (CIC) is empowered to levy penalty only where it finds that the information has been provided belatedly without any reasonable clause or in a case where it has been denied malafidely," the court said.

In 2015, the suit worn by Modi with his name woven into it in gold pinstripes went to 62-year old Laljibhai Patel, a Surat-based diamond merchant, for ₹ 4.31 crore. 

Title: Hans Raj Jain v. PMO

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Del) 1103