On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that RTI Reply cannot be cited to show Govt's stand on an issue.
A bench comprising Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice CT Ravikumar was adjudicating upon a batch of petitions seeking GST exemption for Haj and Umrah tour operators.
The Counsel for the petitioner when placed reliance on certain replies furnished by the Centre Government under RTI Act to submit that Haj services is recognised by it as 'religious activities', the Court took exception and observed that RTI reply depends on the question posed which can be misleading in other referrences. Only affidavit shall be valid.
"In all writ petitions, RTI is relied on. This is always misleading. Depending on what question is posed, based on that the answer is given. That has been our broad experience till now. RTI is not an admission of the government. The concerned authority which is required to do business of taxation should depose on affidavit that this is what we state and only then can we accept it as admission",
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