DNA; Ashutosh Shukla; Tuesday, November 16, 2010
A Calcutta high court guiding the Bengal State Information Commission has given the RTI activists, in the state, a reason to cheer. Though not binding, some want the state commission to accept its guidelines in toto.
The order states that the commission should dispose of the second appeal hearing within a period of 45 days of its filing.
As per the Act, information should be given to applicant at the the public information commission (PIO) within 30 days. If he does not get the same, the applicant can approach the first appellate authority (FAA), where an order is to be passed within 45 days.
In Maharashtra, the waiting ranges from three months to almost a year in the various benches of the state information commission. The total appeals and complaints pending are approximately 15,000 as on August 2010.
The order dated July 7, 2010 was given by justice Jayanta Kumar Biswas when applicant Akhil Kumar Roy appealed to the high court. His appeal had not come for hearing due to high pendency. In his order, the judge highlighting the period stated in the Act for the level of PIO and FAA states, “The sparkle of a strong strand of speed woven through the sections of the act is abruptly lost in the second appeal that has been allowed to run wild.”
It further states, “In my opinion, keeping in mind the respective maximum periods fixed for deciding a first appeal under section 19 (1) and disposal of a request for obtaining information under section 7, the second appellate authority should have decided the second appeal within 45 days from the date of filing there of.”
“The ideal time in which the person should be getting information is 30 days. So we feel that the state commission should accept the guidelines,” said Vihar Dhurve, an RTI activist, who has been circulating the mail about the order.
Another activist, Bhaskar Prabhu said, “Guidelines should be commission specific. There are certain commission where the pendency is high and some others where there are very few appeals. However, there definitely is need to have a deadline keeping in mind 25 days of hearing on a daily basis.”
When contacts, state chief information commissioner, Vilas Patil said, “I haven’t read the order. Will comment after I see it.”