RTI activists call Orissa CIC 'buffoon', taken to court

Debabrata Mohanty: Fri Oct 15 2010, BHUBANESWAR:

Orissa State Information Commission has filed a defamation suit against two RTI activists for calling state Chief Information Commissioner D N Padhi a “buffoon” and “ignorant of law”.

In the suit filed in a Bhubaneswar court on October 5,the commission has sought Rs 99,900 in damages as well as permanent injunction against the activists Pradip Pradhan and Chitta Behera for making “derogatory” remarks against Padhi in several widely-circulated emails.

In a bunch of emails circulated by Pradhan, the CIC has been referred to as “idiot”, “psychotic megalomaniac” and “ignoramus”. “Mr Padhi’s buffoonery is more revealing when one comes face to face with his infatuation to project the Information Commission as a court and himself as its Honourable Chief Judge,” reads one email.

Pradhan and Behera also accused Padhi of turning the Information Commission into a “lumbering behemoth”. “The current commissioners show no urgency as they dispose only 30-35 cases in a month whereas central information commissioners like Shailesh Gandhi dispose 265 cases in the same period,” Pradhan said. “Any case takes about 10-12 hearings, forcing petitioners to run to Bhubaneswar. If the commission continues to dispose at this rate, then they would take another 20 years to finish all the cases.”

Pradhan had recently written to the Governor, seeking dismissal of Padhi on the grounds of “incapacity”, “infirmity” and “moral turpitude” after the CIC summoned him to appear in person before the commission in a case. Pradhan alleged the commission did not have such powers under the RTI Act.

In its suit, the commission has alleged that Pradhan and Behera’s emails have tarnished the “reputation, image and estimation of the CIC in the public eye”.

“The social status of the plaintiff (CIC) has been tarnished by the malicious mails. He has suffered mental pain and agony,” it said, adding that Padhi felt his life was “insecure” due to the “malafide intention” of Pradhan and Behera.

“More than 99 per cent of the petitioners are happy with our decision. They are trying to intimidate the commission. If they are unhappy with my decisions, they can go to the High Court,” Padhi told The Indian Express.