Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Avishek Goenka challenging the rejection of his RTI application made to a central government department by using his post box number to protect his identity, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice Ashim Kumar Banerjee and Justice Debangsu Basak held that a person making a petition under the Right to Information (RTI) Act need not give his name and address and can make the petition by using only a post box number.
The order of the Calcutta High Court would be applicable only in West Bengal and the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Other states may follow the order, but it is not a binding upon them. This decision, which would serve as a major protection for whistle-blowers in the country, was delivered by the division bench to protect applicants or RTI activists from attack and harassment by persons who do not want information about their activities to be disclosed.
As per the records, during the last six years, about 150 RTI activists had become victims for seeking information by giving their names and addresses, out of which 24 people were killed, 52 people were assaulted and 74 people were harassed. Stressing on the fact that RTI activists are vulnerable human rights defenders in India who often act alone against corruption and other illegal activities of public authorities and political leaders who do not want information about their activities to be disclosed, Goenka contended that it is a person’s right to apply for seeking information under the RTI Act by using post box number. He further submitted that only when RTI activists get killed or seriously injured that they receive the attention of the media and when RTI activists make complaints, no appropriate action is taken by law enforcement personnel. Stressing on this point, he submitted that the lives of activists could have been protected if they were allowed to apply under the RTI Act by using post box number.
The Parliament has also raised the need for protecting RTI activists, several times in the past. While hearing the case of the murder of RTI activist Satish Shetty in Maharashtra on 7 May 2010, the Bombay High Court had ordered the state to provide police protection to any person complaining of threats or the use of force after filing RTI application.
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