Third party must disclose reasons for certified copy of orders, judgements: SC

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the rules framed by various High Courts, including that of Karnataka, mandating a third person to disclose reasons for seeking a certified copy of court orders are not inconsistent with the provisions of the Right to Information Act.

A bench of Justices R Baumathi, A S Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy upheld the validity of the Gujarat High Court Rules stipulating such a condition. The court said the rules merely laid down a different procedure for obtaining information “lest such application would reach unmanageable proportions apart from the misuse”.

The top court noted the Supreme Court Rules also stipulated that certified copies of documents or orders could be supplied to the third parties only on being satisfied about the reasonable cause.

As per the provision of the RTI Act for suo motu disclosure of information by the public authority, the judgments and orders passed by the High Courts are all available in the website and any person can have access to these judgments and orders, the status of the pending cases.

However, the third party has to disclose reasons for having a certified copy for the satisfaction of the court that the information was sought for bona fide reasons or to effectuate public interest, it said.

Explaining further, the bench said, “The information is held by the High Court as a trustee for the litigants in order to adjudicate upon the matter and administer justice. The third party cannot be permitted to have access to such personal information of the parties or information given by the government in the proceedings. Lest, there would be misuse of process of court and the information and it would reach unmanageable levels."

The top court dismissed an appeal filed by the Chief Information Commissioner against the Gujarat HC's judgement of March 13, 2014, which had upheld the validity of the HC rules for a third party to file an affidavit stating reasons for seeking a certified copy of the documents.