Recently, the single bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh of Delhi High Court held that the Chief Information Commissioner had no jurisdiction to direct reimbursement of medical expenses under the Right To Information Act, 2005.

In the said matter, the writ Petition filed on behalf of Steel Authority of India Ltd. challenged the powers of the Chief Information Commissioner under the RTI Act, 2005 on the ground that after the recording that the information had been provided, the CIC could not have directed that SAIL had to give reimbursement in a time bound manner.

The CIC had passed the following direction:

“7. In view of the above, the Commission advises the appellant to approach the competent authority for redressal of his grievance. The Commission also directs the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), SAIL, New Delhi, who is entrusted with the responsibility of redressing the grievance of SAIL employees, to ensure that the appellant’s grievance is redressed in a time bound manner as well as to put in place a policy to address the issue relating to reimbursement of medical expenses to ex-employees of SAIL in eventualities such as non-renewal of mediclaim schemes etc.”

While setting aside the direction given in para 7 of the order of the CIC under challenge, the Delhi High Court observed that the jurisdiction of the CIC under the RTI Act, 2005 would not have extended to directing reimbursement of medical expenses.

Adv Sushil Kumar Singh represents as Counsel for SAIL