Bhopal: Police can’t deny general info under RTI, says SIC

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Police can’t deny sharing of general information in its dispatch register under Right to Information (RTI) Act just on the basis that the register has in it certain confidential information, MP State Information Commission (SIC) has ruled.

Hearing a complaint from a resident of Balaghat district, MP State Information Commissioner Rahul Singh advised police headquarters to maintain a separate inward and outward (Aawak, Jawak) register at all the police stations across the state for confidential information. The complaint pertained to denial of information by Balaghat police from a police station’s dispatch register.

Singh said as far as confidential information was concerned, police should use severability clause of RTI Act to hide a particular part of confidential information while releasing the rest of general information. As per order, appellant Mahesh Kumar Pardhi filed a second appeal with State Information Commission after he was denied information related to dispatch register by Balagahat police on the ground that it was confidential.

Pardhi had field an RTI application on April 7, 2022, with public information officer (PIO) sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Arvind Shrivastava in Waraseoni.

Srivastava denied information saying sharing of information was barred under Section 8 (1) (j) of RTI Act as personal information of sensitive nature would be compromised.

Aggrieved with the denial, Pardhi filed first appeal with the Balaghat SP. However, the SP also denied him information saying that dispatch register contained sensitive information.

During the hearing, appellant Pardhi made a plea before commission that dispatch register was a public record and didn’t contain sensitive information. He alleged that police had malafide intention in denying him the information.