Delhi HC orders disclose donations made by the President President Comes under RTI

Delhi HC orders disclose donations made by the President President Comes under RTI

Delhi High Court said that Donations made by the President of India out of public funds do not pertain to his or her personal information and ordered details on disbursement of presidential funds between 2004-11 to be made public.

The court made it clear that the president also came under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. "The President of India is not immune from the application of the act."

Justice Sanghi said: "Public funds are those funds which are collected by the state from citizens by imposition of taxes, duties, cess and services charges. These funds are held by the state in trust for being utilized for the benefit of the general public."

In simple language this means that  Under Right to information act every Indian citizen has a right to know how the money was utilized or donated.

June 2011 –
Nitesh Kumar Tripathy filed an application and sought information relating to the donations given by the president from "time to time".

The CIC in its order observed that "the donations given by the president of India out of the public funds cannot be treated differently from the subsidy given by the government to citizens under various welfare schemes".

After this appeal was filed by the president's secretariat challenging the May 4 order of the CIC on an RTI application filed by Nitesh Kumar Tripathy.

The donations have been made by the Hon'ble President of India from the tax payer's money," the court said and dismissed the appeal of the Presidents secretariat.


Excellent  judgment by the Delhi High Court.

Reality views by sm –
Friday, June 15, 2012

Tags -  RTI President of India