HC to hear on Oct 30 pleas to bring AG's office under RTI

The Delhi High Court today listed for hearing on October 30 two separate petitions seeking to declare the Attorney General's office a public authority under the RTI Act on the ground that the top law officer's appointment is governed by the Constitution.
"Let the petitions be listed for hearing on October 30," Justice Sudershan Kumar Misra said.
The pleas were transferred to the court of Justice Misra after Justice V K Jain, before whom they were earlier listed, recused from hearing on August 14 without citing any reason.
In one of the two petitions on the issue by RTI activist R K Jain, Justice Misra asked the Centre to file its response.

The court had earlier issued notice to the Law Ministry on a similar petition filed by another Delhi-based RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agarwal. Now, both the petitions would be heard together.
Agarwal has moved the high court in appeal against a decision of the Central Information Commission (CIC) holding that the office of AG is not covered by the RTI Act.

The petition, filed through lawyer Prashant Bhushan, has said that any attempt to keep the office of AG out of the RTI Act would defeat the fundamental right of citizens to get information about a public authority.
Additional Solicitor General Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the Attorney General, had opposed the plea on various grounds including that the advice rendered by the AG to the state and its authorities is protected under the law.

The ASG had also said the AG has a "fiduciary" (trust) relationship with the government and, moreover, "there is no establishment attached with the office of the AG".
The petition contended that as far as the AG at the Centre and advocate generals at the state-level are concerned, they are public authorities by virtue of being an "authority or a body or institution of self-government established or constituted by or under the Constitution" as required by the Sec 2(h) of RTI Act.