UNION OF INDIA Vs. COL. V.K. SHAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The captioned writ petitions raises a common question of law, which is, whether the petitioners are obliged to furnish information to respondent which is retained with them in the record, in the form of file notings as also the opinion of the Judge Advocate General (in short JAG) found in records of the respondents, under the relevant provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (in short the RTI Act).

(2.) Though the question of law is common, for the sake of completeness, I propose to briefly touch upon the relevant facts involved in each of the matters, which led to institution of the instant writ petitions.

(3.) Col. V.K. Shad was posted to the Army Core Supply Battalion 5628 in September, 2008. Evidently, he fell out with his deputy, one, Lt. Col. B.S. Goraya. Col. V.K. Shad had issues with regard to Lt. Col. B.S. Goraya, which in his perception impacted the functioning in the unit. Lt. Col. B.S. Goraya, on his part made counter allegations against Col. V.K. Shad qua issues which he regarded as infractions of standard operating procedures governing the functioning of the personnel inducted into the army.