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The Commissioner thoroughly justified in directing the furnishing of reports and their enclosures. Such an opinion was held by The Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka before The Hon’ble Mr. Justice NS Sanjay Gowda in the matter of The Public Information Officer and anr Vs. The First Appellate Authority and anr [W.P No. 18599/2021(GEM-RES)]. 

The facts of the case were associated with a Writ Petition filed under Articles 226 and 227 wherein the petitioner prayed for the records in the case dated 18.03.2021 on the file of Hon’ble Karnataka State Information Commissioner. The State Information Commissioner by the impugned order had directed the petitioners to transfer the B-report and enclosures which were sought by the respondents. It was stated that the 1st respondent’s son died due to jumping out of the window and the Authorities submitted that the son died due to overdrinking. Thereby, respondent 1 contended that the stigma was attached to his family by presenting the B-reports. It seemed to the commissioner that there was no prohibition to provide the information sought since the investigation was already completed.

Considering all the facts and submissions The Hon’ble Court ruled out that “ In my view, the commissioner was absolutely justified in directing furnishing of B-report and its enclosures as sought for by the respondents No.1 especially when the investigation in the matter had been concluded… Therefore, no grounds are made out to entertain this petition… Accordingly, the petition is dismissed.”

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Judgment reviewed by Bipasha Kundu