Supreme Court seeks govt's reply on plea for online RTI portals

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and state governments to file reply on a plea seeking direction to establish Right to Information (RTI) web portals in all states to enable citizens, especially those living abroad, to file RTI applications online.

A bench headed by Justice NV Ramana asked them to file a reply in two weeks and the petitioner to file a rejoinder thereafter. It said that no further adjournment would be granted to the parties.

The order was passed on a plea filed by Pravasi Legal Cell contending that none of the states, except Delhi and Maharashtra, have set up the online RTI portals.

Under the RTI Act, any citizen of India may request information from a public authority which is required to reply within thirty days.