Mumbai: The Bombay high court has quashed and set aside Central Information Commission’s (CIC) orders that directed the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to collect or obtain information from Bombay Stock Exchange and furnish it to Right to Information (RTI) applicants.Justices Manish Pitale and Shreeram Shirsat on Tuesday allowed nine petitions by Sebi and BSE. The CIC had held that as per the RTI Act, Sebi is under obligation not only to provide information available with it, but also to collect such information from third parties, like BSE, and provide it to the applicants.Advocates, for Sebi and BSE, argued that as a public authority and regulator, Sebi would be under obligation to provide information available with it, but not to collect it from third parties, like BSE, and provide it to RTI applicants.The judges said the definition of ‘information’ under the RTI Act shows that while a public body is required to furnish information held by it to an applicant relating to any private body, it is subject to other provisions including exemption from disclosure. Further, it has to be information held by the public authority “at that point in time the request for such information is made”. “The provisions do not indicate that a public authority, like Sebi in the present case,… is under an obligation to obtain information from third parties to satisfy persons applying for such information,” they added.The judges noted that the Supreme Court had clarified that the RTI Act provides “access to all information that is available and existing” and does not cast obligation on the public authority “to collect or collate” non-available information and then furnish it to an applicant.CIC had earlier brought to HC’s notice the Supreme Court’s clarification on the position of law and had declined direct public authorities like Sebi. In the light of SC’s clarification, HC concluded, “There is no alternative but to hold that the impugned orders passed by the CIC in these cases cannot be sustained and that they deserve to be set aside.”
