By Adnan Rafique
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Registrar Office to share the requested information about the SC employees with the applicant within seven days. The top court issued a 10-page written order into the case. The order was written by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa.
The order said that the Right to Information Act was not applicable to the SC. It said that access to information was right of people under Article 19 of the Constitution, and it was necessary for the person requesting the information to give reasons for it.
The court ordered the Registrar Office to refund the fee deposited by the applicant in connection with the intra-court appeal and the appeal in the Supreme Court. It said that the decision of the top court should also be issued in Urdu language. The order noted that the citizen had requested eight different informations from the Registrar Office about the employees of SC. It further added that more than 100 countries have laws pertaining access to information. The American court has declared access to information in line with democracy, accountability and protection from corruption.
Giving an Islamic reference, it said there was no objection to asking Hazrat Umar about the clothes. The decision on access to information would be viewed in the context of Article 19A of the Constitution. The decision to deny the access to information must be based on reasonable grounds by the institution, person or authority, it added. In the present case, the registrar did not give any justification for not providing information to applicant Mukhtar Ahmed. It may be mentioned here that the Pakistan Information Commission had asked the Registrar Office to share the requested information to the citizen.
However, the IHC had terminated the decision of PIC, which was challenged before the top court. The SC’s bench had reserved its verdict on September 27, after hearing arguments from respondents.
