The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation petition seeking an online Right To Information (RTI) portal to be set up for the apex court since it is a public authority under the RTI law [Ramey Krishna Rana v. Union of India]..The plea filed by a law student, Ramey Krishan Rana was heard by a bench of Chief Justice of India UU Lalit and Justices S Ravindra Bhat and PS Narasimha.The Court said that while the issue raised is relevant, it cannot be entertained under Article 32 of the Constitution."In our view Article 32 plea is not to be entertained here. Its a good petition. But dismissed," the Court orally stated..The plea said that non-availability of an online portal for RTI creates hindrance to public to obtain information related to courts.Absence of such online mechanism was not in tune with Section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 which recognises 'electronic means' as one of the ways to seek information under the RTI Act."It is pertinent to note that the word through electronic means (under Section 6) clearly depicts the route of filing an RTI application through online mode. The word 'electronic means' must be construed liberally and must be taken in its widest sense," the plea said..Further, the plea said that by switching to electronic means, the unnecessary expenditure incurred in paper mode filing can be done away with."Also an online application/ appeal does not require further manual entry by the registry which will halt the ongoing tedious and time consuming process," the petition said. .[Read order]
