Punjab and Haryana High Court upholds denial of RTI information about Army’s Stud farm

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently upheld the Indian Army’s refusal to disclose any information related to a dairy being run at its horse breeding farm in Haryana’s Hisar [Vinod Kumar v Equine Breeding Stud and Others]..Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi said the applicant Vinod Kumar had failed to disclose how he was concerned with the information he was seeking under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act).The single-judge added that though it is not necessary for an applicant to reveal his intention when seeking information under the RTI Act, the Court can ask about it when the information concerns the Indian Army. “The Army has established a Horse Breeding Stud Farm in Hisar where according to the petitioner, a Dairy is also being run. It should be noted that the animals which are kept in the Stud Farm are for purposes which the Army deem fit and not for the General Public and any information disclosed herein can lead to compromise of any kind of vital information,” the Court said..In particular, Kumar had sought information regarding the grant of approval for running a dairy at the Equine Breeding Stud. However, he had also asked about the number of eggs produced in a month there and the number of cows, goats and chickens kept there.This shows that the information is not being sought for any useful purpose but only for other reasons best known to the petitioner, the Court said. On the petitioner’s submission that he only wanted to know about the approval granted by Ministry of Defence for running the dairy, the Court said,“Once the land was in the occupation of the Indian Army and the same was being used for a particular purpose by the Indian Army, whether any approval of the Ministry of Defence, Government of India to run a Dairy in the said land was given or not, is of no concern of the petitioner and can compromise the security of the Institution run by the Army for their own purpose.”.Consequently, the Court dismissed the petition. In 2022, the Central Information Commission also upheld the denial of information.Advocate Sardavinder Goyal represented the petitioner.Advocates Gaurav Pathak and Archana Vashisht represented the Equine Breeding Stud.Senior Panel Counsel Arvind Seth represented the Union of India. [Read Order]