(a) "Right to Information, for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, is an important enactment." Discuss. Also describe the obligations of public authorities as mentioned in the Act. (20 marks)

(b) "To enf

Question

(a) "Right to Information, for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, is an important enactment." Discuss. Also describe the obligations of public authorities as mentioned in the Act. (20 marks)

(b) "To enforce the arbitration agreement, the terms of the agreement must be clear and certain." Explain. (15 marks)

(c) Discuss the remedies for infringement of trademark and passing off available to the trademark owner. (15 marks)

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Constitutional Basis and Obligations under the RTI Act, 2005

The Right to Information is grounded in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, as affirmed in PUCL v. Union of India (2002), where transparency was recognized as an essential facet of freedom of speech and democratic accountability. While the fundamental right establishes the constitutional guarantee, the Right to Information Act, 2005 operationalizes it into an actionable statutory regime with defined procedural safeguards.

The Act imposes comprehensive affirmative obligations on public authorities:

Section 4 mandates proactive (suo motu) disclosure, requiring authorities to systematically catalog, digitize, and publish their organizational structure, powers, operational norms, decision-making channels, and budget allocations to minimize citizens' need for formal applications.

Section 7 prescribes strict timelines for information disposal: thirty days under normal circumstances, and forty-eight hours where the information concerns the life or liberty of a person.

Section 8 enumerates specific exemptions, including national security, cabinet papers, and commercial confidences. However, Section 8(2) introduces a public interest override, directing disclosure if public interest outweighs the harm to protected interests.

Section 10 applies the doctrine of severability, requiring authorities to supply non-exempt portions of a document if exempt information can be safely redacted.

Certainty in Arbitration Agreements

Under Section 7 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, an arbitration agreement must be in writing and reflect a clear, unequivocal mutual intention to submit disputes to binding determination. The doctrine of separability and the principle of kompetenz-kompetenz (codified in Section 16) treat the arbitration clause as independent of the substantive contract and empower the tribunal to determine its own jurisdiction, but this rests on the existence of certain terms.

As held in Jagdish Chander v. Ramesh Chander (2007), terms expressing a mere tentative intention or a future contingency (e.g., "parties may refer to arbitration if agreed") lack consensus ad idem and are unenforceable. Where ambiguity is curable, courts facilitate dispute resolution through reference under Section 8 or the appointment of arbitrators under Section 11. Conversely, "pathological clauses"—such as those specifying non-existent arbitral institutions, conflicting dispute resolution pathways, or optional arbitration—render the agreement void for uncertainty under Section 29 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872.

Remedies for Trademark Infringement and Passing Off

A trademark owner possesses distinct statutory and common law avenues of redress.

For registered marks, Section 135 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 provides civil remedies, including temporary and permanent injunctions, damages or an account of profits, and orders for delivery-up and destruction of infringing materials. Section 134 provides a plaintiff-friendly jurisdictional forum based on the place of business or residence. Additionally, Sections 103 and 104 establish criminal remedies, prescribing imprisonment and fines for falsifying or falsely applying a trademark.

Passing off is a common law tort that protects unregistered commercial goodwill against deceitful misrepresentation. It requires proof of the "classical trinity": the plaintiff’s prior goodwill, misrepresentation by the defendant causing confusion, and resultant likelihood of damage. In Cadila Health Care v. Cadila Pharmaceuticals (2001), the Supreme Court affirmed that passing off actions do not depend on statutory registration; deceptive similarity is judged strictly, particularly in pharmaceutical goods where confusion endangers public health.

Way Forward

Strengthening these legal protections requires improving institutional capacity: upgrading Public Information Officers' infrastructure to meet Section 4 proactive disclosure mandates, adopting standardized drafting in commercial contracts to eliminate pathological arbitration clauses, and establishing specialized IP courts to expedite both civil injunctions and criminal enforcement against counterfeiting.

(a) "Right to Information, for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, is an important…

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