Sanjeev Narula JUDGMENT
Sanjeev Narula, J.
1. The present appeal under Clause X of the Letters Patent is directed against the final judgment and order dated 12th May, 2020 passed by the learned Single Judge in W.P.(C) 8352/2018 whereby appellant's writ petition impugning the order passed by respondent No. 3, declining to furnish the requested information under the Delhi Right to Information Act, 2001 (hereinafter referred to as 'DRTI Act'), has been rejected.
2. Brief factual matrix leading to the filing of the present appeal is that the appellant filed an application under DRTI Act, 2001 before respondent No. 5 (Director of Education, Delhi) and respondent No. 6 (Mrs. Ranjana Daswal, Additional/Spl. Director (ASB/ACT-II), seeking information pertaining to Geeta Senior Secondary School No. 2, Sultanpuri, Delhi. Appellant sought attendance record pertaining to himself for the period from April, 2015 to March, 2017 and also of the rest of the staff members serving in the same school. The copy of the attendance register pertaining to the appellant was provided to him, however at the same time information concerning the other staff members was declined on the ground that information requested was exempted under Section 8(1)(j) of the Right to Information Act, 2005. Aggrieved with the response received, appellant filed an appeal under Section 7 of DRTI Act before Public Grievance Commission ('PGC'), the designated appellate authority under the Act.
3. In the appeal proceeding, the Deputy Director of Education, Zone-XII filed reply and furnished a copy thereof to the appellant wherein inter alia it was stated as under:
"1. That for para 1 copy of attendance pertaining to the Appellant (Dr. R.S. Gupta) w.e.f. April, 2015 to March, 2017 has already been provided to the Appellant on 5/05/2017 on depositing Rs. 120/- (Annexure R-1). The attendance of the rest of the staff members working in the school (Geeta Sr. Sec. School, Geeta Chowk, Sultanpuri, Delhi-110086) cannot be provided as it is the third party information and comes under section 8(1)(J) of RTI ACT as there is no large public interest was involved for which this information was being sought."
4. Vide order dated 4th September, 2017, respondent No. 6 was directed to confirm whether attendance record is submitted along with the monthly salary bills received from aided school for the release of salary through ECS ('Electronic Clearance System'). The relevant order reads as under:
"4.1 Competent Authority i.e. Additional Director(II), Directorate of Education is directed to clarify whether as per the Act and Rules or under any other order of the Directorate, it is mandatory for the aided schools to submit copy of attendance register every month to the Education Department. Competent Authority shall further clarify what documents are required to be submitted by the aided schools authorities for release of salary to the staff members. The clarification should be submitted to the Appellate Authority/Chairman (POC) before the next date of hearing.
4.2 A senior officer, well conversant with the facts of the case, must be deputed on the next da........