Difficult to answer RTI queries regarding judgements: SC

Source:18 Mar 2010, 2030 hrs IST, PTI
   
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday said its 

officials handling RTI matters cannot be expected to

answer queries relating to judgements
passed by it because of "limited resources" available with them.

"As far as the Central Public Information Officer is concerned, it may be very difficult to comment on a decision or give a report whether a thing has been done in a judgement or not. It is the job of a lawyer".

"The CPIO may not be in the best position to actually understand the import of the decision," counsel for Supreme Court Devdutt Kamat said during a hearing at Central Information Commission.

He said, "CPIO has limited resources and limited infrastructure. Under the RTI regime, whatever is available in the registry, definitely, he will give but if this request is allowed we are going to land in lot of problems".

Kamat submitted before the Commission that if information sought by any RTI applicant is in the "possession" of the registry of the apex court, it will definitely be given.

"But information as far as judgement is concerned. What is a judgement, what is the import of a judgement, what are the directions given in a judgement? That advice is best appropriate to be left to a lawyer," he said.
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RTI helps senior citizen get post back after 11-year-long legal battle

Source:Viju B, TNN, Mar 22, 2010, 05.25am IST

MUMBAI: Qamar S Qazi’s story could be representative of what may happen to some state charitable trusts that are mired in litigation as trustees fight to retain powerful posts.

The Right To Information (RTI) Act came to the rescue of the 76-year-old Panvel resident who was ousted from the trust after he fought a 11-year-long legal battle. A former assistant commissioner of customs and central excise, Qazi was removed from the post of general secretary of Anjuman Tanzeem Achra, a charitable education trust, through a no-confidence motion in 1999.

But the original papers of the trust’s no-confidence motion, which were kept in the charity commissioner’s office, were substituted with forged papers in alleged collusion with office staff. Following this, the charity commissioner’s office passed an order to oust Qazi.

It was only when Qazi applied to the charity commissioner’s office for a copy of the no-confidence motion that he discovered, to his horror, the documents were substituted. It was found that the attendance lists also had serious discrepancies; many members were dead or their names were fictitious and some were abroad when the ‘alleged’ election took place. “We found out that 80% of the signatures were fake. This was later confirmed by the additional chief state examiner of documents,’’ Qazi said.

On discovering the forgery, Qazi lodged a criminal case against the existing trustees at the additional magistrate’s court, Mazgaon, in 2000. The court directed the Dongri police to investigate the case and the police report established that a forgery had been committed. The court then ordered the police to file a charge sheet. However, despite directives from the magistrate, the charity commissioner’s office did not subsequently take any action on the forgery committed by the existing trustees.

Qazi then filed a query under the RTI Act, asking about the status of the case and it got rolling after 7 years. “Within a month, I got a reply from the charity commissioner, stating that the earlier fake no-confidence motion passed by the trust had been set aside and a fresh inquiry had been initiated against the trustees,’’ he said.

Qazi also filed a writ petition, asking that the inquiry be completed within 30 days. The court directed the petition to be withdrawn, giving him the liberty to approach the appropriate forum.

He then approached the charity commissioner’s office. The deputy charity commissioner set aside the erroneous order of the assistant charity commissioner and again directed another inquiry be initiated. Further, the joint charity commissioner in his February 22 order stated that some members who ‘allegedly’ took part in the no-confidence meeting were not, in fact, present and quashed the earlier order passed by the assistant charity commissioner in 1999. Qazi, who has now regained the post of the general secretary of the trust, said that the RTI Act exposed the fraudulent methods used by the members to remove him from the trust. The RTI Act can bring about positive changes even in the way charitable institutions function in the country, he added.

Meet brings together 250 RTI users from across Gujarat

Source:Caroline Andrade / DNA
Thursday, March 18, 2010 10:18 IST


Ahmedabad: The RTI is perhaps the most useful weapon

that the common man can yield against any authority. A state-level three hour

long RTI convention organised on Wednesday and attended by

around 250 RTI users from Gujarat, saw participants discuss how

they used the Right to Information Act to expose loopholes and

inefficiency of the system.



The  convention was held in Paldi. Arvind Kejriwal of Parivartan India,
Harinesh Pandya, secretary of Janpath and founder of Mahiti Adhikar,
Gujarat Pahel and Prof Jagdeep Chhokar, Association for Domestic
Reforms ADR, were also present at the event.

Deepak Patel of Gujarat state primary teachers' association said that he
used RTI to seek details about teachers in all schools of Gujarat.

"But I was given details of only 600 schools. I then identified the non-qualified
teachers in these schools and also found that the district education officers
were not carrying out proper inspection in schools," said Patel.

Patel then filed a complaint with the information commissioner, RN Das
which in turn sent a notice to the state government. "The government clearly
stated that it was the duty of the DEO to carry out inspections. In response,
the DEO said that they were short-staffed. The RTI application also brought
to fore the fact that some reports were prepared by the DEO without any
official actually carrying out the inspection," said Patel.

Vinod Pandya of Gujarat state Talimi Snatak also came across many
loopholes in the education system after he filed an RTI application
seeking information about private primary schools and non qualified
teachers."I asked for a full data for Ahmedabad district and city schools
and in the process got to know that 70% teachers were non-qualified
. I also learned that in 95% of the cases, the teachers were not being
paid proper salary and even their provident funds were not in order,"
said Pandya.

Pandya later filed a PIL in the high court and the government promised
to sack non qualified teachers. "However, even after 2 years nothing
has happened," said Pandya.

Girish Vishrambhai Dodia of Surat, son of a slain RTI activist
, Vishrambhai Dodia said his father lost his life due to a fight
between an electricity company and the police department.
"He had filed an RTI petition seeking inquiry against illegal
electricity connection that involved a whole lot of influential
people of the city," said Dodia.

Dangers of being an RTI activist- Lucknow

 

 Source:TNN, Mar 21, 2010, 02.01am IST

LUCKNOW: Information often comes at a price. 

In some cases even at the cost of life. The RTI activists narrated these 

facts before the MLAs who had come to attend a seminar on `RTI Act

and the view of the state legislators' organised at the Indian Institute of 

Management, Lucknow (IIM-L) on Saturday.

Substantiating the point was an IPS officer and president of RTI Forum,
Amitabh Thakur, who emphasised the goal of transparency and accountability
of the RTI Act. Thakur dwelt at length about the Section 8(1)(a) to
8(1)(j) of the Act under which information can be withheld and the
way these sections are presumably misused by the public authorities in denying information.

He went on to quote three examples, that of Satish Shetty of Pune,
Shashidhar Mishra of Begusarai and Venkatesh of Eeranapalya.

These persons, he said, were murdered for being RTI activists. 

The forum calls them `RTI martyrs'.

MLA from Sultanpur Anup Sanda narrated his experiences as
a social worker which were quite in consonance with the woes
of the RTI activists. He said that there was a huge delay in the
information being disseminated to the RTI activists. He was quick
to emphasise upon the need to have stringent penalties for the
public authorities violating the provisions of law.

Siddharth Shankar, MLA from Malihabad, claimed RTI to be a
fundamental right. He admitted that red-tape was marring the very
tenets of act which needed to be addressed. Likewise, Banda MLA
Vivek Singh said that with RTI Act even the masses had acquired
the rights, previously limited to the MPs and the legislators.

Dev Dutt Sharma asked the legislators to move the issue of present
state information commissioner Ranjit Pankaj being a convict and
still occupying the coveted seat, to which the legislators consented.

Nutan Thakur, an RTI activist and member of National RTI Forum,
urged the legislators to do something to increase the number
of employees in the State Information Commission so that the
burden of the SIC is reduced. The legislators agreed and
assured to raise the matter in the forthcoming Assembly session.

Mata Prasad Pandey, former Vidhan Sabha speaker, said that
he would try his best to initaite efforts for making amendments in the Act.

The National RTI Forum is an association looking into matters
related to RTI activists, including their training, guidance,
support and security related aspects as also about the RTI Act
and its broader policy related issues.

TI covers info on tax refunds

Sources:TNN, Mar 12, 2010, 12.04am IST



CHENNAI: Getting tax refunds from the income-tax (I-T)

department is a hassle for many citizens, who either do not

receive it or get it only after many years.

In a landmark ruling,

the Central Information Commissioner 

has passed an order

which said information on refunds is covered under the 

Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The Central Information Commissioner while passing the
order, said "To deny the appellant information sought b
him under clause (e) or clause (j) of section 8(1) is nothing
but misappreciation of law."

"The information sought by the appellant is covered under

section 2(f) of the RTI Act and he has a right of seek 

information under section 2(j) thereof.

It is clarified that the appellant has not
sought any information which the
public authority is holding in fiduciary capacity,"
M L Sharma,CIC, said in his order.