THAKOR SARDARJI BHAGVANJI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Letters Patent Appeal has been filed by the appellant-original petitioner challenging the order of the learned Single Judge dated 17.06.2014 passed in Special Civil Application No. 8274 of 2014, by which the learned Single Judge has dismissed the writ petition filed by the petitioner.

(2.) A short question that arises for consideration in this Letters Patent Appeal is whether a BPL Card holder is entitled to apply for certified copies of the index as well as registered documents along with the copies of annexures thereto for a period of seven years i.e. from 2005 to 2011, which is about 11780 registered documents, free of cost, under proviso to Section 7 (5) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 without disclosing as to whether his requirement is for any larger public interest as the documents demanded by him are public documents of third parties.

(3.) The brief facts of this case are that the appellant original petitioner made an application in October, 2011 under the provisions of Right to Information Act, 2005 (for short 'the Act') seeking information from the Information Officer and Sub-Registrar, Siddhapur. By virtue of the said application, the petitioner demanded certified copies of all the documents with their annexures which were presented and registered in the office of Sub-Registrar in the span of seven years i.e. from 2005 to 2011. By the same application, he also prayed to supply certified copies of the index (wherein entry of registered documents are made) in respect of all documents, which came to be registered in the office of Sub-Registrar, Siddhapur during aforesaid span of about seven years i.e. from 2005 to 2011. The Information Officer in the office of the Sub-Registrar found that during the period in question i.e. from 2005 to 24.10.2011 about 11780 documents were registered.