Hockey India moves Delhi HC against CIC order directing to provide certain information

Hockey India moves Delhi High Court against the Central Information Commission (CIC) order dated December 13, 2021 directing the Public Information Officers of the petitoner to disclose certain information, allegedly including list of its members and employee salaries under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The petition states that CIC suffers from complete non-application of mind, in as much as the same is wholly arbitrary, contrary to statute, and contrary to the law laid down by this Court and its own judgments.

The matter on Wednesday was heard by the bench of Justice Rekha Palli in which she sought certain documents being relied upon by the respondents in the matter. The court continues to hear the matter on Thursday.

The plea states that Subhash Aggarwal, an RTI Activist through RTI application, had sought information relating to Hockey India with regard to salary and addresses of employees of the Petitioner(Hockey India), monthly rent paid by the Petitioner India for its premises taken on lease, signatories of bank accounts of the Petitioner, record pertaining to fund-transfer by the Petitioner to bank-accounts in foreign countries and information on record pertaining to cash withdrawals made by the Petitioner.

Plea further states that, There is no discernable public interest that could override the exemptions of the information as sought. It is also pertinent to mention herein that the annual accounts of the Petitioner are already published its website and the Petitioner is duly audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. The overall accounts of the Petitioner including the heads of expenditure, income, cash flow are all part of the Petitioner's accounts which are already available to the public on the website of Hockey India at www.hockeyindia.org, and may be available to RTI Activist.

The information that is subject to disclosure under the RTI Act has already been disclosed by the CPIO of the Respondent. There is no overriding public interest, which warrants disclosure of information, which is otherwise exempt from disclosure under the R TI Act under Sections 8( 1 )(d), 8( 1 )(e) and 8( 1 )(j) of the R TI Act, stated plea.

The RTI Activist, respondent in the matter has failed to make out a case as to how the disclosure of the information sought would serve any benefit to public interest or make an assessment with regard to an overriding public interest justifying such disclosure. The CIC makes no finding with relation to the objections raised by the Petitioner. In absence of considering the objections raised by the Petitioner either orally or in its reply, it is submitted that the hearing was an empty formality and principles of natural justice were not complied with, plea read.

( With inputs from ANI )

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