The RTI Act has an overriding effect over other statutes and laws, and information cannot be denied under the RTI Act merely because a statutory mechanism is prescribed under another Act.

JUDGMENT :

Augustine George Masih, J.

1. Challenge in this writ petition is to the order dated 30.11.2015 (Annexure P-3) passed by the First Appellate Authority, Jhajjar, and me order dated 04.04.2016 (Annexure P-6) passed by the Second Appellate Authority, the State Information Commission, Haryana, whereby the appeals preferred by the petitioner have been dismissed.

2. 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 ` 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.

3. I have heard the counsel for the parties and with their assistance, have gone through the impugned orders.

4. The operative portion of the order dated 04.04.2016 (Annexure P-6) passed by the State Information Commission, Haryana, reads as follows:

"The Commission observed that as per Section 17 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1969, there is a statutory mechanism evolved within the public authority which obliges the public authority to share the same with the citizenry by following the prescribed procedure and upon fulfillment of the prescribed conditions. Hence, it cannot be said that the public authority 'holds; or 'controls' the information which can be accessed by any citizen under the specific Act. There is no exclusivity in such holding or control. In fact, the control vests in the seeker of the information who has only to operate the statutorily prescribed mechanism to access the information. This kind of information does not fall within the meaning of the expression 'Right to Information' as the information in relation to which the 'right to information' is specifically conferred by the RTI Act is that information which is held by or under the control of any public authority. The said le