Dear All,
In an Very Similar Case of the Letter of Support Given to Sri Dharmasingh by Mr
H D Kumarswamy & his party and Letter of support Given to Sri H D Kumarswamy by
Mr BS yediurappa, Made to the Governor's Office by Sri S Amaresh , Managing
Trustee RTI study Centre (MHAK) , The reply Received was that it is An
Privilaged Communication, Subsequently the Governors Office has filed a Writ
petition in Karnataka High Court and Brought a stay .
This order would Certainly of Good use to Us Here in Karnataka
This interesting Information On RTI is Sent to you all as You should not be
deprived of the Same

N vikramsimha , Trustee RTI study centre & KRIA Katte , #12 Sumeru Sir M N
Krishna Rao Road , Basvangudi < Bangalore 560004.

--- On Sat, 11/7/09, sroy1947 <sroy1947@...> wrote:


From: sroy1947 <sroy1947@...>
Subject: [rti_india] Letters of support by parties to be under RTI ambit: CIC
To: rti_india@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, 11 July, 2009, 10:45 AM








http://www.business -standard. com/india/ news/letterssupp ort-by-parties-
to-be-under- rti-ambit- cic/66879/ on

Letters of support by political parties given to the president pledging their
support for forming a government at the Centre has been brought under the ambit
of Right to Information by the CIC.
In a recent decision, the Central Information Commission held that the
information provided to the president by various political parties cannot be
treated as one emanating from "fiduciary relationship" and thus cannot be denied
under the Act.

Exercising his Right to Information, Kerala-based advocate T Asaf Ali, in 2007,
had asked for a copy of letters given by CPI-M, DMK, RJD and other coalition
partners of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to then President APJ Abdul
Kalam extending support to Congress leader Manmohan Singh for forming a
government at the Centre.

The information was, however, denied by the CPIO. "... These letters were given
under fiduciary relationship between the authors of their letter and the
president, therefore they come under Section 8(e) of the Right to Information
Act," Nitin Wakankar said in response to the RTI query.

After being denied information from the First Appellate Authority at the
President's Secretariat, Ali filed his second appeal before the CIC.

Hearing the appeal, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah held "To
come within the ambit of Fiduciary Relationship, trust becomes an inalienable
component... The information provided by various political parties cannot be
treated as one emanating from Fiduciary Relationship and that makes Section 8
(1)(e) inapplicable. .."

Habibullah also directed the CPIO to provide the information to the applicant
within 15 days.

According to Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act: "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. "

"Political parties are independent entities and have a juristic personality of
their own. They have no official dealing with the President of India nor do they
interact with the President or the President interacts with them in the decision
making process.

"... The President has acted on the letters submitted by them (political
parties) and the power of the President to act upon such letters is
discretionary.

Hence, the argument that the letters of supporting UPA government by political
parties to the President is in a fiduciary capacity is far fetched," Habibullah
said in his order.

He further agreed to the appellant's argument that the authors of these letters
have themselves disclosed the content of these letters to the media hence
secrecy or fiduciary relationship is not involved.

















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