CIC pulls up law ministry over incomplete RTI on Court fee data

An RTI seeking nationwide court fee collection data remained incomplete despite being transferred across four entities. The Central Information Commission has ordered a fresh reply and issued show-cause notices to Law Ministry officials over mishandling and procedural lapses

New Delhi: An RTI application seeking nationwide data on judicial court fee collections was transferred to four government departments and public sector entities but the information provided remained incomplete, prompting the CIC to direct a fresh reply and issue show-cause notices to officials of the law ministry.

The RTI applicant had sought details of annual collections of judicial court fees, including e-court fees, on an all-India basis, the total amount collected since June 1, 2014, with state-wise annual figures and the utilisation of such collections and related allocations.

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According to the Central Information Commission (CIC) order, the application was filed with the Department of Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Law and Justice and was subsequently transferred to the Department of Financial Services (DFS), its Institutional Finance-I (IF-I) Division, Industrial Finance Corporation of India Ltd (IFCI) and finally the Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd (SHCIL). The IF-I Division informed the applicant that the information sought was not available with it and transferred the application to IFCI.

IFCI, in turn, said the queries appeared to pertain to SHCIL and forwarded the application to the company. SHCIL provided details of e-court fee collections for 16 states and Union Territories where it operates e-court services. However, on the second query relating to court fee collections since June 2014 and the third query regarding utilisation of the collections, it stated that the information sought was not applicable to it.

During the hearing, the appellant submitted that the information provided on the first two points was incomplete and that no information had been received on the utilisation of court fees, which related to the Ministry of Law and Justice.

The Commission observed that the application had moved from the Department of Legal Affairs to DFS, then to the IF-I Division, IFCI and finally SHCIL. It noted that SHCIL had provided replies only on the first two points and had stated that information on the third point was not available with it.

“The CPIO Stockholding Corporation of India Ltd. provided the reply only on points 1 and 2 of the RTI application and said that the information on point 3 is not available,” the order said.

Recording SHCIL’s submission that it would revisit its response and rectify any discrepancy, the CIC directed the company’s CPIO to provide a revised reply on points one and two.

The Commission also issued a show-cause notice to the CPIO of the Department of Legal Affairs, asking why action under Section 20 of the RTI Act should not be initiated for wrongly transferring the entire application to DFS and for remaining absent during the hearing without prior intimation.

A separate show-cause notice was issued to the First Appellate Authority in the Ministry of Law and Justice for not responding to the appellant’s letter dated October 12, 2024.