Bombay HC refuses to provide information under RTI on structural audit on court’s heritage building

The public information officer of the Bombay High Court has declined to disclose information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act regarding the structural audits of the court's heritage building in south Mumbai. The refusal is based on the assertion that revealing such information could pose a threat to the safety and security of judges and other officials.

Environmental activist Zoru Bathena had last month filed an RTI application seeking copies of the last three structural audits conducted for the main and annexe buildings of the Bombay High Court. Bathena said he had sought the information to use in another matter about the reconstruction of the 135-year-old reservoir at Malabar Hill in south Mumbai.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) claimed that the reservoir was beyond repair and needed to be reconstructed. We wanted to give examples of the high court building and the BMC’s headquarters building, which are also over a century old but are being repaired and not reconstructed, Bathena said.

The activist asserted that he had requested the structural audit reports of the BMC building and had received the information, but the high court declined to provide it. In a response dated November 1, the high court's public information officer rejected Bathena's application, stating that the requested information cannot be provided as it is not related to larger public activities or interests.

The information sought is exempted from disclosure for security purposes. The information sought is also exempted as disclosure of the same would endanger the life or physical safety of the Hon’ble judges and officials of the Hon’ble Bombay High Court, the reply said. It further stated that the information is held by the concerned department in a fiduciary relationship and that preservation of the confidentiality of such sensitive information was necessary.