Saket Gokhale's Plea Against Display Of Personal Details of RTI Applicants: Bombay HC Directs I&B Ministry To Conduct Enquiry, Orders To Pay 25k Cost

Hearing activist Saket Gokhale's petition before it against the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the Bombay High Court today imposed a penalty of Rs. 25,000 on the Ministry for displaying Gokhale's personal details on the Ministry's website after he filed an RTI against the "Bharat ki Laxmi" campaign.

The Division bench of Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Milind Jadhav further directed the papers of the petition to be placed before the Secretary, Information and Broadcasting Ministry and directed for a report to be submitted regarding the case within 3 months. The question of damages has been left open to the civil court.

1. Secretary, Ministry I&B to conduct an enquiry into this issue of disclosing personal details of RTI applicants. Enquiry should complete within 3 months failing which petitioner has liberty to approach this court again

2. Petitioner awarded 25,000 for litigation costs.

3. Petitioner given liberty to move civil court for claiming damages.

The advocate appearing for Union of India then informed the Court that disciplinary enquiry had already been initiated in the matter, in response to which the Court said that in case any enquiry is not conducted, Gokhale would be at liberty to move court again.

According to Gokhale, he had filed a Right to Information application with the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs, Govt of India, on October 27, 2019 which was transferred to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. The I&B Ministry thereafter uploaded his RTI application on the ministry's website, with his personal contact details.

With his telephone and address details appearing on the Ministry's website, the details were thereafter available on search engines like Google as well, infringing his privacy.

Following this, Gokhale had moved the Allahabad High Court in a letter petition for a stay on the inauguration function of the Ram Janmabhoomi, which nearly 200 people were expected to attend. After the Court converted the petition into a public interest litigation and dismissed it, Gokhale stated that he started receiving harassing and intimidating phone calls.

In his plea, Gokhale sought compensation worth Rs.50 lakhs from the Ministry for the 'mental trauma, agony, and threat to life and liberty' suffered by him due to the Ministry's act.

Earlier, the Ministry in response to the Court's direction had filed an affidavit stating that 'there was no mala fide intention' on the part of the Ministry in uploading Gokhale's details on its website.