Minors cannot use RTI Act, says UP information commission, CIC disagrees

Minors cannot seek information under the RTI Act, the Uttar Pradesh information commission has said while dismissing the plea of a fourth class student who had sought details of missing documents from the chief minister's office.

Surprisingly, the Right to Information Act does not have any clause where age is the criterion for filing information seeking applications. It only mentions that a "citizen of India" can demand information from public authorities by paying a fee of Rs10.

Chief information commissioner at Central information Commission AN Tiwari also said that the Act does not limit its use by people above the age of 18 years.

"There is no restriction of age limit. The Act allows a citizen of India to file the application," Tiwari said.

The case in point is of a nine-year old Aishwarya Sharma who had approached chief minister Mayawati's office with a hand written complaint on a notebook page about a garbage dump in front of her school.

Seeing no initial action, she sent her RTI application seeking to know rules under which garbage dumps can be allowed in front of schools. Faced with such uncomfortable questions, the officials informed her that the RTI application was not received by the office.

Aishwarya shot off another application seeking to know the number of such letters that have gone missing from the chief minister's office and officials responsible for misplacing her letter.

While she was trying to extract information, Lucknow Municipal Corporation removed the garbage dump but no details about her questions were provided by the chief minister's office.

When the case reached the state information commission, chief information commissioner Ranjit Singh Pankaj held that applicant is a class three student (at the time of filing application) who is prima-facie minor and does not come under the definition of major in Indian Majority Act.

Pankaj said any complaint or appeal under the Act is a qasi-judicial proceeding and any minor person cannot act in the RTI Act. He asked Aishwarya to present her appeal through her guardian.

Section 22 of the RTI Act says, "Provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act."

"It is clear that rejection of application by the SIC does not stand. Age is not the criterion to seek information. Second provisions of Indian Majority Act does not apply because of overriding powers of the RTI Act," Urvashi Sharma, a civil society worker, said.