Rajiv Sharma, J.

Since common questions of law and facts are involved in the above-titled writ petitions, hence the same are being taken up together and adjudicated by this common judgment. In order to maintain clarity, the facts of WPMS No. 1491 of 2014 have been taken into consideration.

2. “Key facts”, necessary for the adjudication of these petitions, are that the respondent no.3 has sought the information from the petitioner vide application dated 05.03.2014.

3. Petitioner informed the respondent no.3 vide letter dated 14.03.2014 to receive the information after depositing the charges.

4. Respondent no.3 filed an appeal before the Appellate Authority bearing Appeal No.01 of 2014. The appeal was allowed by the Appellate Authority.

5. Thereafter, the petitioner filed second appeal before the Appellate Authority and the same was dismissed on 16.05.2014 by holding that the appeal could not be filed by the petitioner i.e. Managing Director.

6. The question which has fallen for consideration before this Court is whether the second appeal could be filed by the petitioner under Section 19 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereinafter to be referred as the Act, 2005).

7. The Right to Information Act, 2005 has been enacted to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority, the constitution of a Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions and for matters connected therewith. It has come into force w.e.f.12.10.2005.

8. Section 2(a) of the Act, 2005 defines “appropriate Government”.

9. Section 2(e) of the Act, 2005 defines “competent authority”.

10. Section 2(h) of the Act, 2005 defines “public authority”.

11. Section 2(j) of the Act, 2005 defines “Right to Information”.

12. Section 2(k) of the Act, 2005 defines “State Information Commission”.

13. Section 3 of the Act, 2005 deals with the subject to the provisions of this Act, all citizens shall have the right to information.

14. The obligations of public authorities have been laid down under Section 4 of the Act, 2005.

15. Designation of Public Information Officers is provided under Section 5 of the Act, 2005.

16. The information is required to be submitted under Section 6 of the Act, 2005.

17. The procedure of disposal of the request has been laid down under Section 7 of the Act, 2005.

18. Section 7(1) and Clause (a) of sub-Section 3 of

Section 7 reads as under: -

“7. Disposal of request.-(1) Subject to the proviso to subsection (2) of section 5 or the proviso to sub-section (3) of section 6, the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be on receipt of a request under section 6 shall, as expeditiously as possible, and in any case within thirty days of the receipt of the request, either provide the information on payment of such fee as may be prescribed or reject the request for any of the reasons specified in sections 8 and 9:

Provided that where the information sought for concerns the lift or liberty of a person, the same shall be provided within forty-eight hours of the receipt of the request.

(3) Where a decision is taken to provide the information on payment of any further fee representing the cost of providing the information, the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be shall send an intimation to the person making the request, giving-

(a) the details of further fees representing the cost of providing the information as determined by him, together with the calculations made to arrive at the amount in accordance with fee prescribed under sub-section (1), requesting him to deposit that fees, and the period intervening between the dispatch of the said intimation and payment of fees shall be excluded for the purpose of calculating the period of thirty days referred to in tha