Public authority not bound to collect and furnish information which is not required to be maintained by it: CIC [Read Order]

The Central Information Commission has observed that a Public Authority has no obligation upon to collect/collate information which is not required by its law, rules or regulations to be maintained by it.

In the instant case, an RTI application was filed before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), Rajya Sabha Secretariat seeking information/historical documents on two points pertaining to the telecasting of a programme on ‘Constitution’ on 02.03.2014 on Rajya Sabha TV Channel. According to RSTV, they had outsourced the production of a programme named ‘Savindhan - Making of the Constitution’ and hence, the information has not been compiled by RSTV.

Dismissing the Second Appeal, Information commissioner Sri. Sudhir Bhargava observed: “The information which is not required to be maintained by law, rules or regulations of the public authority, the RTI Act in such cases casts no obligation upon the public authority to collect/collate such non-available information and then furnish it to the appellant, as held by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in CBSE v. Aditya Banopadhyay”

In the case referred above, the Apex Court had held: “where the information sought is not a part of the record of a public authority, and where such information is not required to be maintained under any law or the rules or regulations of the public authority, the Act does not cast an obligation upon the public authority, to collect or collate such non- available information and then furnish it to an applicant.”

Read the order here.