Shakti Singh Vs State Information Commission, Haryana and others (Punjab and Haryana HC)
Briefly the facts are that the petitioner had applied for the death certificate of his mother Rukmani in May 2015 to the Sub Registrar, Births and Deaths, Primary Health Centre, Mandothi (Jhajjar), to which a response was received on 19.05.2015 stating that the death certificate of Rukmani, mother of the petitioner, was not available. According to the petitioner, proper information was given to the Primary Health Centre, Mandothi, with regard to the death of the mother of the petitioner and was duly entered by Asha Worker Sumitra in the Primary Health Centre records. Faced with this situation, petitioner submitted an application on 03.08.2015 (Annexure P-1) under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereinafter referred to as the RTI Act) to the State Public Information Officer-cum-Deputy Civil Surgeon, Jhajjar, Haryana-respondent No.3 with required fee of Rs.50/-, for which a receipt No.6241 dated 03.08.2015 was issued. The said information when was not supplied within the time prescribed under the RTI Act, petitioner approached the First Appellate Authority namely Civil Surgeon, Jhajjar, Haryana-respondent No.2 by filing an appeal on 17.09.2015 along with the application dated 03.08.2015. Said appeal was disposed of by the First Appellate Authority vide order dated 30.11.2015 (Annexure P-3) by observing that the information as sought by the petitioner has been supplied to him by the S.P.I.O. but no such information was ever supplied. The order of the First Appellate Authority indicates that the Deputy Civil Surgeon, Jhajjar, as well as the petitioner were not present at the time of hearing of the case despite various adjournments but the file was seen by the First Appellate Authority and on the basis of the record had simply passed the said order. Petitioner, therefore, preferred the second appeal before the State Information Commission, Haryana, on 08.12.2015, which was decided vide order dated 04.04.2016 (Annexure P-6) denying the information to the petitioner by observing that the petitioner is not entitled to information under the RTI Act and he should, in the light of the provisions of Section 17 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, seek the death certificate as per the procedure prescribed therein, despite taking into consideration the fact that the RTI Act has an overriding effect. This has led to the filing of the present writ petition.
