RTI applicants needn`t provide address: Centre

NEW DELHI .  Government departments should notinsist on seeking address of an RTI applicant if a post box number is being provided to them for communication, the Centre has said.

 

The Ministry of Personnel has written to all central government ministries or departments, who act as public authorities mandated with providing information on RTI applications made to them, citing a judgement by Calcutta High Court in this regard.

 

"When the legislature thought it fit, the applicant need not disclose any personal detail, the authority should not insist upon his detailed whereabouts particularly when post box number is provided for establishing contact between him and the authority.

 

The order had come following a writ petition by Avishek Goenka who sought court's direction that authority should not insist upon the detailed address of the applicant as and when any application is made under the Right to Information Act.

 

The interested parties could cause a threat to the activist and there have been past incidents of unnatural deaths of activists in the field, presumably by persons having vested interest to conceal the information that is asked for by the activist, the petitioner had said.