The undue delay in providing information sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has cost the Bombay High Court dearly.
The undue delay in providing information sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has cost the Bombay High Court dearly. The State Information Commissioner has directed the HC's Public Information Officer (PIO) to provide information demanded by RTI activist Shailesh Gandhi free of cost as they were not able to give him the necessary information within the prescribed 30-day period.
On December 16, 2006, Gandhi had made an application under RTI about the disposal of cases by each judge of the HC in the year 2006. However, on January 27, 2007, he received a communication from the PIO stating that there should be a separate application for every judge and the applicant must mention the name of the judge and the day for which he needs the disposal record.
Peeved by the reply, Gandhi appealed before the appellate authority and the Registrar General of the HC. However, the appellate authority held that the PIO had not 'withheld' the information, as the HC judges include the HC benches in Aurangabad, Nagpur and Goa. Moreover, some judges are assigned special courts and the strength of the judges throughout the year is not static.
Gandhi contended later before the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) that the information he sought was simple and he would just like to get an aggregate figure of disposals by every judge.
The CIC Dr SV Joshi ordered the PIO to give the information to Gandhi in the format provided by him. The PIO has to hand over the information to Gandhi in 15 days. Gandhi would have had to pay Rs10 per typed page and Rs15 per computer print out, but the delay on the part of the PIO will get him the information for free.
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