Karnataka High Court Quashes Order Directing ACB To Probe Denial Of Information Under RTI Act, Says PIO Not Supposed To 'Create' Information

The Karnataka High Court has observed that under provisions of the Right To Information Act, only such information that is available and existing and held by the public authority can be provided. In response to the show-cause notice issued by the Commission, the petitioner gave a reply stating that the CCTV installed in the office is having the capacity to retain memory only for a week, and after the expiry of a week, the same gets erased automatically without any manual intervention and there is no Circular issued by the head office "regarding mode of maintenance of CCTV and duration of maintenance of previously recorded visuals" since it requires huge space and the hardware capacity is not sufficient to hold the coverage for more than a week. The basic object is to promote transparency and accountability in the functioning of every public authority, it added “The applicant sought the recorded CCTV footage from 01.04.2016 in the month of November 2017. The CCTV installed in the office had less capacity; it can retain memory only for a week and thereafter, it will automatically get erased without any manual intervention,” said the court.