New Delhi: The Central Information Commission has said that filing of repeated RTI applications by an applicant seeking similar information shall be a reasonable ground for rejecting the plea for which reply has been given.
“Citizens have no right to repeat similar information request under the RTI Act, 2005, for which he already got a response,” the commission observed on the basis of objectives of the RTI and interpretations given by other information commissioners.
According to information commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu once an RTI application is answered the appellants shall refrain themselves from filing another RTI application against the public authority.
“As once information is received and held by them or posted in public domain, because such information is deemed to have ceased to be ‘held’ by the public authority,” he said basing his arguments on the observations given by previous information commissioners and objectives of the RTI Act.
“An applicant or appellant repeating the RTI application or appeal either once or multiple times, suppressing the fact of earlier application and receipt of the answer, the CPIO of the public authority may reject it forthwith after intimating it along with reasons,” he said.
Dismissing the appeals of one RTI applicant who was repeatedly seeking “information which are highly voluminous,” Mr Acharyulu said commission may reject the appeal.
