Bombay High Court: A Division Bench comprising of Ranjit More and Sadhana S. Jadhav, JJ. held that Police Manual is a government publication and its copies were liable to be provided under RTI.
Respondent 2 asked the Public Information Officer of Maharashtra Police to provide him, inter alia, a copy of police manual. The PIO declined to provide a copy of the manual holding it to be a confidential document. He also filed an appeal against such denial and the second appellate authority (CIC) directed the appellant to provide copy of the manual to Respondent 2 and uploaded it on the website. The appellant is in appeal against the same order.
The Court referred to various sections of the RTI Act and held that police manual is a government publication and as such the contents of it are not covered by Section 8(2) of the RTI Act. Accordingly, the appellants were ordered to provide the copy of the police manual and also to upload its copy on the website. The appeal was thus dismissed upholding the order impugned in the appeal. [State of Maharashtra v. CIC, WP No. 9971 of 2013, decided on 19.04.2018]
