RAJIV SHAKDHER, J.:—

1. The captioned writ petitions raises a common question of law, which is, whether the petitioners are obliged to furnish information to respondent which is retained with them in the record, in the form of file notings as also the opinion of the Judge Advocate General (in short JAG) found in records of the respondents, under the relevant provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (in short the RTI Act).

1.1 In each of the matters, the Union of India (UOI) has been represented by Mr. Rajeeve Mehra, ASG, while the respondents have appeared in person. Amongst the respondents, Col. V.K. Shad has appeared in person and made submission at each date, while the same cannot be said of the other two respondents, Col P.P. Singh and Brig. S. Sabharwal who have put in appearances occasionally. In particular, they were absent on the last two dates of hearing when matters were heard at length and the judgment was reserved in the matters. Nevertheless, it appears that, the said officers have adopted and are in sync, with the submissions made by Col. V.K. Shad.

1.2 The orders impugned in each of the captured writ petitions were those passed by the Central Informati