Grounds For Rejection to Access Information In Certain Cases under RTI Act – Without prejudice to the provisions of Section 8, a Central Public Information Officer or a State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, may reject a request for information where such a request for providing access would involve an infringement of copyright subsisting in a person other than the State under section 9 of RTI Act, 2005.
The Optional Exemption { Section 9 }
This provision also imparts an exemption from providing information but in a different field and of a different nature. It deals with the information involving the infringement of copyright of a person than that of the State. Thus the information involved is that of private nature than public information. Where the information involves an infringement of a copy right of private individual such information may be refused But this does not involve a clear exemption I.
it does not say that there shall be no obligation of providing such information But it leaves it to the discretion of the SPIO to refuse if he so decides. Thus the nature of exemption under Section 9 is discretionary rather than obligatory.
Since the information involved may infringe the copyright of the private individual and it may not be covered under the right to information as defined under the Act. But when such information is held by Public Authority it comes under the definition of information But still when the private interest is involved, until or unless some public interest is involved in it, the same is not obligatory to be disclosed Apart from it, the information enumerated under sub-section (1) of Section 8 are of public interest affecting the interest of the State,
therefore the information provided under Section 9 could not be categorized under Section 8(1) However, to protect the private interest involved therein and to ensure the public interests also simultaneously, it has been left at the discretion of the SPIO to reject the application in such cases if he so decides.
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- Third Party Information Under RTI Act, 2005
- Powers and functions of the Central Information Commission and State Information Commission
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References | Grounds For Rejection To Access Information In Certain Cases under RTI Act
- Commentary on The Right to Information Act by J. N. Barowalia, 2010
- Right To Information Law & Practice by R. K. Verma, 2010
- The RTI Story: Power to the People by Aruna Roy, 2018
- Right to Information by K. B. Rai, 2020
