1. This complaint was filed by the complainant under section 12 of Consumer Protection Act, 1986 against the opposite parties 1 & 2 praying to punish the opposite parties as per the provisions of Right to Information Act and to direct the opposite parties to provide the required information.
2. Till now this Forum has been registering the matters in the light of the decision of the Hon’ble National Commission rendered in the matter of Dr.S.P.Thirumala Rao Vs. Municipal Corporation, Mysore (RP 1975/2005) rendered on 28-05-2009. In the said decision, the Hon’ble National Commission held that notwithstanding the fact that the persons aggrieved on account of refusal of information sought under R.T.I. Act can approach the Consumer Fora for compensation notwithstanding the fact that they have statutory appeal before the Commissioner under R.T.I. Act.
3. However, in a subsequent decision rendered by the Hon’ble National Commission on 08.01.2015 in the matter of Sanjay Kumar Mishra & Others –versus-Public Information Officer (PIO) & Ors (R.P.Nos 2028,3146 of 2012 & 362,2806 of 2013), reported in 2015 CPR 171 (NC after referring to the decision in Dr.S.P.Thirumala Rao’s case, held that in the light of the fact that the aggrieved parties who fail to secure information under R.T.I. Act have effective remedy before the Appellate Authority under R.T.I. Act, they can not be treated as a “ consumer “ and as such the Consumer Protection Act can not come to their rescue either to obtain information which they could not secure.
In the result, we hold that the present complaint is not maintainable in this Forum. However, the Complainant is at liberty to seek redressal as per the sections 19 & 20 of RTI Act, 2005 for which he would be entiteled to the beneffit of the time consumed in this proceeding for remission agaianst counting the period of limitation, in keeping with liberty allowed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the case of Laxmi Engineering works –Versus-P.S.G Industrial Institute (1995) 3 SCC 583.
Copy of order be made available to the parties free of cost.
Delivered in open forum on this 30th March,2015
