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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Donations made by President under RTI: Delhi high court-Abhinav Garg

Donations made by President under RTI: Delhi high court-Abhinav Garg

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published Published on Jun 15, 2012   modified Modified on Jun 15, 2012
-The Times of India
 
The new occupant of Rashtrapati Bhavan will have to be more transparent in making donations. 

For, the Delhi high court on Thursday, in a significant ruling, held that under the Right to Information Act, every citizen is entitled to know the donations given by the President of India, as these are made out of public funds. 

"Every citizen is entitled to know as to how the money, which is collected by the State from him by exaction, has been utilized. Merely because the person making the donations happens to be the President of India, is no ground to withhold the said information. The Honbl President isn't immune from the application of the Act," Justice Vipin Sanghi said. 

The court upheld the CIC's order directing the President's secretariat to make public the names of recipients of the donation, and the amount donated by the First Citizen. The CIC had ruled in favour of an applicant Nitish Kumar Tripathi who filed nine RTI pleas seeking an exhaustive list of recipients of the President's generosity. The CIC's order prompted the President's Secretariat to approach HC arguing disclosure affects the right to privacy of the recipients. 

While rejecting every argument made by the Secretariat against the CIC's May 04 order the court pointed out, "What is important, is that it is a public fund from which donations are being made by the President and not his /her private fund placed at his /her disposal for being donated amongst the needy and deserving persons." HC reminded the Secretariat that public funds are those which are collected by the State from citizens by imposition of taxes, duties, cess, service charges and "are held by the State in trust for being utilized for benefit of the general public." 

The court dismissed the Secretariat's argument that some people seek donations for medical treatment and the right of privacy of third parties would be breached by such disclosures. "The donations made by the President of India cannot be said to relate to personal information of the President...A person who approaches the President, seeking a donation, can have no qualms in the disclosure of his/her name, address, the amount received by him/her as donation or even the circumstance which compelled him or her to approach the First Citizen of the country to seek a donation," it added. 

Justice Sanghi further said "such acts of generosity and magnanimity done by the President should be placed in the public domain as they would enhance the stature of the office of the President of India. In that sense, the disclosure of the information would be in the public interest as well." 

The court rejected Additional Solicitor General A S Chandhiok's argument that CIC had ignored its earlier order in 2009 exempting the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund from the ambit of RTI Act. 

"Since this Court is not concerned with the disclosures vis-a-vis the Prime Ministers Relief Fund, the said issue is not being dealt with herein. In any event, unlike in the case of the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, in the present case, the donations have been made by the Hon'ble President of India from the tax payer's money," the court said while dismissing the government's argument that CIC had confused donations with subsidy. 

Earlier, allowing Tripathi's plea, the CIC had asked the Rashtrapati Bhawan to give details of the donations made by the President to Tipathi within 15 days and upload the information on the official website of the President's secretariat. 

The Times of India, 15 June, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Donations-made-by-President-under-RTI-Delhi-high-court/articleshow/14135857.cms


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