Santosh Kumar Pandey, Angul. Strengthening the spirit of the Right to Information (RTI), the Odisha High Court has quashed the State Information Commission (OIC) order which had imposed a ban on an RTI applicant from seeking new information.
The court clearly said that it is not justified to stop a citizen from seeking information under the RTI Act and the Commission has no legal authority to impose such a restriction.
Justice R.K. While hearing the case, the single bench of Justice Patnaik made it clear that even if an applicant files a large number of RTI applications, he cannot be deprived of seeking information in future. The court declared the Commission's order illegal and removed all the restrictions imposed on the applicant with immediate effect.
The Odisha State Information Commission in September 2025 had barred an RTI applicant named Chittaranjan Sethi from seeking new information for a year after allegedly finding him guilty of “abuse of the RTI process”.
The Commission's argument was that the applicant has wasted public resources and administrative time by filing more than 61 RTI applications in various departments in the year 2023. Along with this, the Commission had also imposed a condition that the applicant will be able to submit a maximum of 12 RTI applications in a calendar year.
Important comments of High Court
Satisfaction among RTI workers
This decision, which came in January 2026, has been welcomed by RTI activists and social organizations. Experts say this decision will protect the basic spirit of the Right to Information and prevent officials from arbitrarily blocking RTI applications. This is being considered an important step towards transparency and accountability.
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