The judicial records held by the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal are within the purview of the Right to Information Act, the Central Information Commission has held.

"We cannot accept the argument that because the information held by ITAT is in the form of only judicial record, such record is outside the purview of the RTI Act. The Supreme Court of India and High Courts, all have rules for disclosure of information both administrative and judicial.

"The only requirement is that applicant must adhere to the particular rules in making an application under the RTI Act," Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said.

He was hearing the plea of RTI applicant Rakesh Kumar Gupta who had sought inspection of records in a case at ITAT, related to Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre.