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The Central Information Commission Recently Held That EVM Is An 'Information' Under RTI Act

Team SoOLEGAL 26 Feb 2019 12:39pm

The Central Information Commission Recently Held That EVM Is An 'Information' Under RTI Act

The Central Information Commission has recently held that under the Right to Information Act, Electronic Voting Machine is an 'information'.

Razaak K Haidar filed an RTI application before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), Election Commission of India (ECI), New Delhi, seeking an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) replying to RTI application of Razaak K Haidar, Chief Information Commissioner Sudhir Bhargava held the above said statement.

According to Razaak K Haidar, as per Section 2(f) and 2(i) of the RTI Act, the definition of 'information' and 'record' comprises of model or any sample. Therefore, an EVM must be considered as 'information' and should be given to him under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act. After rejecting the said application and in their defence, the CPIO said that the model/samples of the EVM available with the ECI, are only used for training purpose by the ECI, and not saleable to the general public.

Referring to Section 2(f) of the RTI Act, the Commission observed: "Thus, the EVM which is available with the respondent in a material form and also as samples, as admitted by the respondent during the hearing, is an information under the RTI Act."

The contention that the software installed in the EVM is an intellectual property of a third party, disclosing information stored in that software would harm the competitive position of the third party concerned, the commission directed the CPIO to give a proper reply, as per the provisions of the RTI Act, since it could not have been rejected under Section 6(1) of the Act.




Tagged: evm   centralinformationcommission   electioncommissionofindia      rajaakkhaidar   information   rtiact  
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