केन्द्रीय सचू ना आयोग Central Information Commission बाबा गंगनाथ माग,ग मनु नरका

Baba Gangnath Marg, Munirka नई दिल्ली, New Delhi – 110067 निकायत संख्या / Complaint No. CIC/PUHHC/C/2025/103136.

Shri Subhash Chandra Agrawal. निकायतकताग /Complainant VERSUS/बनाम PIO …प्रनतवािीगण /Respondent Punjab & Haryana High Court.

Date of Hearing : 14.07.2025 Date of Decision : 30.07.2025 Chief Information Commissioner : Shri Heeralal Samariya Relevant facts emerging from complaint:

RTI application filed on : 01.01.2025 PIO replied on : 22.01.2025 First Appeal filed on : NA First Appellate Order on : NA

2^ndAppeal/complaint received on : 27.01.2025 Information sought and background of the case:

The Complainant filed an RTI application dated 01.01.2025 seeking information on following points:-

“1. Strength of judges in Supreme Court and different High Courts

2. Number of judges in Supreme Court and different High Courts

3. Complete information on steps taken to fill vacancies of judges in High Courts according to sanctioned strength

4. Complete information on constituting 23 ^ (rd) Law Commission

5. Number of cases (a) pending (b) disposed (c) filed in Supreme Court respectively in last five years separately for each year

6. Number of cases (a) pending (b) disposed (c) filed in different High Courts respectively in last five years separately for each year

7. Number of cases (a) pending (b) disposed (c) filed in Lower Courts respectively in last five years separately for each year

8. Total capacity for prisoners combined in all Indian jails as at present

9. Total number of prisoners (a) convicted (b) under-trials in India as at present

10. Total number of under-trial prisoners in India as at present whose lodging in jails have exceeded the maximum imprisonment-punishment for the crimes for which they are in jails as under-trials

11. Complete information on steps taken to remove such ambiguity as referred in query (10) above

12. Complete information on steps taken for fast trials in courts mentioning details of ten olaca pending court cases in India”

The CPIO, Joint Registrar (Litigation) vide letter dated 22.01.2025 replied as under:-

“Your application was received in this Hon'ble Court from the CAPIO. Government of India, Ministry of Law & Justice, Department of Justice, New Delhi by way of transfer under Section 6(3) of the RTI Act, 2005. Moreover, your application has been transferred to multiple public authorities. Section 6(3) of the RTI Act is reproduced as under:-

*6(3) Where an application is made to a public authority requesting for an information,-

(1) which is held by another public authority, or (ii) the subject matter of which is more closely connected with the functions of another public authority, the public authority, to which such application is made, shall transfer the application or such part of it as may be appropriate to that other public authority and inform the applicant immediately about such transfer.

Provided that the transfer of an application pursuant to this sub-section shall be made as soon as practicable but in no case later than five days from the date of receipt of the application."

Further, Section 7(1) of the RTI Act regarding the application fee is reproduced as under:-

"7.(1) Subject to the proviso to sub-section (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 concems the life or liberty of a person, the same shall be provided within -eight hours of the receipt of the request.

It is clear from Section 7(1) that every public authority has the right to ask for the application fee as prescribe