Delay in info no ground for late plea, rules HC

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 14

Delay in gathering information under the Right to Information Act is no ground for late filing of plea, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asserted.

In a significant judgment, the High Court has made it clear that the clock does not stop while a person is gathering information under the RTI Act.

Filing the petition after the specified time limit on the pretext of searching information under the Act can prove fatal to the case.

The ruling by Justice Rajiv Narain Raina came on a petition filed by Sapna Kakkar against Haryana and another respondent.

Claiming the post of dental surgeon Class II in the state Health Department, the petitioner had questioned the OMR sheet, question paper and answer keys in the written examination.

The Bench was told that the advertisement was issued on November 25, 2013, and the screening test was held on July 6, 2014.

The petitioner appeared in the examination and pursued her remedies under the Right to Information Act, 2005, for supply of documents to help her to file a writ petition.

Taking up the matter, Justice Raina asserted that the request to the Haryana State Information Commission was made under Act for the first time on July 7, 2014.

It was now two and a half years since the request was made. It was undisputed that the recruitment process had come to an end and appointment offered to selected candidates.

“Searching for material under the Right to Information Act does not stop the running of limitation delay and laches. If the petitioner was depending on information to file the petition questioning the questions without the answer keys in hand, she still could have approached this court.

“She could have pressed for directions to the respondents to achieve what she was unable to achieve under the Act since this court exercises jurisdiction of issuing writs of certiorari and can always order the state or commission to supply information, documents and material to the petitioner.

“Not having done that, this petition suffers from delay and laches. Laches is negligence in pursuing remedy for relief from where real relief can come. The remedy provided under the Right to Information Act is not a relief-based remedy.

“The purpose is only to compel the department to supply information without making any comment. I will, therefore, not interfere in this matter at this belated stage in direct recruitment and will dismiss the petition,” the court observed.