Now Reading: Bombay high court quashes CIC order on Sebi RTI data from BSE
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Bombay high court quashes CIC order on Sebi RTI data from BSE
The Bombay high court has set aside Central Information Commission (CIC) orders that directed the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to collect information from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and provide it to RTI applicants. The bench of Justices Manish Pitale and Shreeram Shirsat on Tuesday allowed nine petitions filed by Sebi and BSE challenging the CIC's directions.
The CIC had held that under the RTI Act, Sebi was obliged not only to provide information available with it but also to collect such information from third parties like BSE. However, the high court noted that the definition of 'information' under the RTI Act requires a public authority to furnish only the information it holds at the time of the request. The judges said the law does not oblige a public authority to obtain information from third parties to satisfy applicants.
The court cited a Supreme Court clarification that the RTI Act provides access to all information that is available and existing, and does not cast an obligation on a public authority to collect or collate non-available information before furnishing it to an applicant. The high court concluded that the CIC's impugned orders could not be sustained and were set aside.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The ruling restores a key boundary between India's transparency law and regulatory functions. Sebi oversees market institutions such as BSE but does not hold every document those entities generate. If the CIC's interpretation had stood, every regulator in India, from RBI to TRAI, could have been forced to collect and furnish third-party data on demand, vastly expanding the scope of RTI beyond the original legislative intent. The Supreme Court's 2019 clarification in Central Board of Secondary Education vs Aditya Bandopadhyay had already drawn this line: public authorities need not create new records or gather information they do not possess. The practical effect is that RTI applicants seeking BSE-specific data will now have to approach BSE directly under its own disclosure obligations. Watch for whether the CIC appeals to the Supreme Court.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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