NEW DELHI: Holding that information held by a high court on the judicial side are “personal information” of litigants, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said a person cannot invoke the Right to Information Act to get details relating to a case, which can be disclosed only as per the rules framed by the HC.

A bench of Justices R Banumathi , A S Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy said different high courts have framed rules for a third party to have access to obtain certified copies of documents or orders and the procedures under the rules have to followed to get information instead of filing RTI application.

The court said the rule requiring a person to file an application/affidavit stating the reasons for seeking the information is not inconsistent with the provisions of the RTI Act but merely lays down a different procedure like payment of fees etc for obtaining information.

“This would involve wastage of both time and fiscal resources which the preamble of the RTI Act itself intends to avoid,” it said.

