Public access to academic documents under RTI outweighs claims of intellectual property or commercial sensitivity when not substantiated.

JUDGMENT

SANJEEV NARULA, J. (Oral):

1. The Petitioner filed an online RTI application with the Public Information Officer, [“PIO”] of Jamia Millia Islamia University, [“JMIU”] – Respondent No. 3 on 26^th March, 2019, inter-alia seeking access to PhD thesis titled as ‘Studies on some nitrogen fixing genes of Azotobacter vinelandii’, [“PhD thesis”] authored by a scholar, Mr. Umesh Kumar Bageshwar. In response, the PIO, vide response dated 14^th April, 2019, merely forwarded the reply dated 10^th April, 2019, of the Librarian of the University which stated that “the said thesis has been put in absolute safe custody of the Librarian by order of the competent authority of the University,” without providing any response to the request as regards access to the PhD thesis. Dissatisfied, the Petitioner filed a first appeal which also was rejected by order dated 24^th May, 2019 on the ground of Section 8 (1)(d) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 ., “RTI Act”

2. The Petitioner then preferred a second appeal before Central Information Commission, [“CIC”] impugning the decision of the First Appellate Authority. The CIC decided the appeal through order dated 12^th April, 2021, the operative portion reads as under:

3. Aggrieved by the aforenoted decision, the Petitioner has filed the instant petition seeking a copy of or access to the PhD thesis.

4. Counsel for the Petitioner makes the following submissions:

4.1 The CIC has failed to appreciate that the thesis submitted with JMIU is an academic document. It must always be open to public scrutiny for various purposes such as study, further research, testing plagiarism etc. and 5 the refusal on the part of JMIU, is breach of its duties as the custodian of the thesis.

4.2 As per the regulations of JMIU, specifically Rule 13(b) of Ordinance 9(IX), the University is bound to make every Ph.D thesis available without any exception. In terms of Section 13.1 of the UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for award of M.Phil/Ph.D Degrees) Regulations, 2016, the University is supposed to submit the PhD thesis to UGC for hosting the same on INFLIBNET, Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre is a data network connecting university libraries and other information centres. in order to make it accessible to all other Institutions/Universities. Thus, the PhD document is not a confidential document or an intellectual property which cannot be shared.

4.3 The PhD thesis was previously accessible, as evidenced by citations in other academic works. However, JMIU has now adopted an inconsistent stance, unjustifiably withholding access.

4.4 The CIC has wrongly attached commercial value to an academic document by contending that the PhD thesis has gained immense commercial importance. No commercial value or importance can be attached to the PhD thesis as the same is only an academic research document, which must be mandatorily published and available to the public.

4.5 The CIC has wrongly observed that disclosure of thesis would harm the competitive position of the stakeholders without clarifying as to who are the stakeholders. The author of the PhD thesis cannot in any way be regarded as a ‘commercial competitor’ whose commercial position could be harmed upon disclosure of such information. Even JMIU cannot be considered as a commercial competitor, who are only custodians of PhD thesis and must mandatorily publish the thesis.

5. Respondent No.3, on the other hand, in their counter affidavit oppose the request made in the petition. They submit that the PhD thesis sought by the Petitioner has gained commercial importance and involves intellectual property. As the same c