KISHAN CHAND JAIN versus UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

Citation: [2023] 11 S.C.R. 198 · Decided: 17-08-2023 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: D.Y. CHANDRACHUD · Disposal: Directions issued

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Judgment (excerpt)

[2023] 11 S.C.R. 198 : 2023 INSC 741
198
CASE DETAILS
KISHAN CHAND JAIN
v.
UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
(Writ Petition (Civil) No. 990 of 2021)
AUGUST 17, 2023
[DR. DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD, CJI, 
PAMIDIGHANTAM SRI NARASIMHA AND 
J.B. PARDIWALA, JJ.]
HEADNOTES
Issue for consideration : Direction sought by Writ Petitioner to 
implement the mandate of s.4 of the Right to Information Act, 2005. 
Right to Information Act, 2005 – ss. 3 and 4 – Obligation of public 
authorities – Principle of accountability:
Held : Power and accountability go hand in hand – While declaring 
that all citizens shall have the ‘right to information’ u/s.3 of the Act, the co-
relative ‘duty’ in the form of obligation of public authorities is recognized in 
s.4 of the Act – The core of the right created u/s.3 in reality rests on the duty to 
perform statutory obligations – The purpose and object of the statute will be 
accomplished only if the principle of accountability governs the relationship 
between ‘right holders’ and ‘duty bearers’ – The Central Information 
Commission and the State Information Commissions have a prominent 
place and statutory recognition – The Central Information Commission and 
the State Information Commissions directed to continuously monitor the 
implementation of the mandate of s.4 of the Act as also prescribed by the 
Department of Personnel and Training in its Guidelines and Memorandums 
issued from time to time – Commissioners entitled to issue recommendations 
under sub-section (5) of s.25 to public authorities for taking necessary steps 
for complying the provisions of the Act. [Paras 22, 25 and 26]
Right to Information Act, 2005 – s.25 – Mechanism of ‘Monitoring 
and Reporting’ – Discussed.
199
KISHAN CHAND JAIN v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
LIST OF CITATIONS AND OTHER REFERENCES
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India v. Shaunak H. Satya and 
others (2011) 8 SCC 781 : [2011] 14 SCR 328; Government (NCT of Delhi) 
v. Union of India (2018) 8 SCC 501 : [2018] 7 SCR 1; Vijay Rajmohan v. CBI 
(2023) 1 SCC 329 – relied on. 
Central Board of Secondary Education and another v. Aditya 
Bandopadhyay and others (2011) 8 SCC 497 : [2011] 11 SCR 1028;  Verhoeven, 
Marie -Emmanuelle v. Union of India and others (2016) 6 SCC 456 : [2016] 3 
SCR 48; Central Public Information Offi  cer, Supreme Court of India v. Subhash 
Chandra Agarwal (2020) 5 SCC 481 : [2019] 16 SCR 424 – referred to. 
OTHER CASE DETAILS INCLUDING IMPUGNED 
ORDER AND APPEARANCES
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition (Civil) No.990 of 
2021.
(Under Article 32 of The Constitution of India)
Appearances:
Kishan Chand Jain, Rajesh Kumar, E. C. Agrawala, Advs. for the 
Petitioner.
Tushar Mehta, SG, Mrs. Madhavi Divan, ASG, P.V. Yogeshwaran, 
A.A.G., V K Shukla, Sr. Adv., Anmol Chandan, Ms. Nidhi Khanna, 
Rajat Nair, S S Rebello, P V Yogeswaran, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Adarsh 
Upadhyay, Pallavi Kumari, Dr. Monika Gusain, Abhinav Mukerji, 
Akshay Shrivastava, Mrs. Bihu Sharma, Ms. Pratishtha Vij, Saket Singh, 
Mrs. Sangeeta Singh, Mrs. Niranjana Singh, Ms. Madhumita Bhattacharjee, 
Ms. Urmila Kar Purkayastha, Annant, Ms. Arushi Mishra, Sandeep, 
Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki, Polanki Gowtham, T Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, 
Ms. Niti Richhariya, K V Girish Chowdary, Ms. Rajeswari Mukherjee, Sriharsha 
Peechara, Rajiv Kumar Choudhry, Ms. Pallavi, Duvvuri Subrahmanya Bhanu, 
Yashraj Singh Bundela, Sunny Choudhary, Ms. Abha Sharma, Ms. Deepanwita 
Priyanka, Sumeer Sodhi, Ms. Tanya Verma, Abhay Anil Anturkar,  Dhruv Tank, 
M/s. Dr. R.R. Deshpande & Associates Abhimanyu Tewari, Ms. Eliza Bar, Ms. 
K. Enatoli Sema, Ms. Limayinla Jamir, Amit Kumar Singh, Ms. Chubalemla 
200
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[2023] 11 S.C.R.
Chang, Prang Newmai, Rajiv Shankar Dwivedi, Ms. Madhusmita Bora,  Pawan 
Kishore Singh,  Dipankar Singh, Ms. Pavithra V, Dr. Ravindra Chingale, 
Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Bharat Bagla, Sourav 
Singh, Som Raj Choudhury, Ms. Shrutee Aradhna, Anand Shankar, Sameer 
Abhyankar, Ms. Nishi Sangtani, Ms. Vani Vandana Chhetri, Ms. Sugandh 
Rathore, Vishnu Sharma, Ms. Anupama Sharma,  V.N. Raghupathy,  Manendra 
Pal Gupta, Mrs. Ansha Varma, Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, Karun Sharma, 
Jatinder Kumar Bhatia, Krishnam Mishra, Param Kumar Mishra, Jayant Mohan, 
Ms. Adya Shree Dutta, Advs. for the Respondents.
JUDGMENT/ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT
JUDGMENT
PAMIDIGHANTAM SRI NARASIMHA, J. 
1. This Writ Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India 
fi led by way of a public in

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