Jasneet Bindra: Fri Oct 29 2010:
Chandigarh : Outgoing Haryana CIC says people want judiciary to open up
“Judiciary should come out of the cocoon of secrecy and understand that it is not out of the RTI Act,” said Haryana Chief Information Commissioner G Madhavan, who retired on Thursday. “People have tasted the RTI Act, and now they want more. Citizens expect the judiciary to open up,” he said. He gave reference to a judgment of Justice K Kannan of the Punjab and Haryana High Court regarding the Act. The judge had once said the line that was being drawn between what should be in public domain and what sealed in the iron chest of any establishment was getting dimmer by the day. “More than any other public institution, it should be the judiciary which should set an example to herald the era of transparency,” Justice Kannan had said, adding that any attempt to conceal information would only go to erode the majesty of the judiciary in public perception. Madhavan, who completed five years in office, had joined as the CIC when the RTI Act came into force in 2005. In five years, he has decided 2,575 cases — 174 of them in a double bench with either Meenaxi Anand Chaudhary or Lt Gen J B S Yadav. He has imposed Rs 1.13 lakh worth of penalty in 22 cases and awarded compensation worth Rs 11 lakh in 277 cases. However, the job was tough and challenging. “It was a new Act, and there was no precedent to follow. So one day, I sat down with the then Punjab CIC Rajan Kashyap and chalked out some procedures and norms. We decided to keep the proceedings judicial, but not unfriendly, and also drafted a proforma. I did not have an office and started work from a room in the Secretariat. The Act came into force in October 2005, but the budget for the building came only in March 2006. By July 2006, we were able to set up this building,” he said. When asked if the less number of complaints in the Haryana commission as compared to Punjab indicated a lower level of awareness in the state, he said: “We divide the cases into complaints and appeals, and also guide the information-seekers to go to the first appellate authority if they have skipped the step. This reduces the number of cases.”
He said a new interactive software and SMS services to inform applicants about the status of their cases would be launched soon. The service has been developed by the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad. Every appeal or complaint that comes to the commission will be given a number so that the applicant can track its status.
New office in Panchkula
Land has been earmarked in Sector 14, Panchkula, for the office of the Haryana State Information Commission. Madhavan said the Centre would provide Rs 7.5 crore and the state would give a matching grant, adding that the building would be ready within two years.
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