Hindustan
Times: Bhopal: Monday, November 12, 2012.
The state
assembly secretariat has framed new rules for implementation of Right to
Information Act in the secretariat, replacing controversial rules that it framed
in 2010.
The new rules
were notified on November 8 just at the time when a deadline of six weeks given
by Supreme Court to file a reply to a petition challenging the 2010 rules was
about to elapse.
It might be
mentioned that the MP State Assembly Secretariat had in November 2010 framed a
set of rules that put several restrictions on RTI applicants seeking
information about activities of the state assembly and the secretariat.
The 2010
rules mentioned that the applicant would have to cite public interest reason
for seeking information, put restrictions on seeking more than one piece of
information through single application, would have to use a specific format of
application and so on.
These rules
had come just a day after the state information commission had directed the
assembly secretariat to provide a certain set of information to an RTI
applicant.
On basis of
the new rules, the secretariat refused to give the information.
The applicant
first challenged the rules in MP High Court on the basis that they violated the
provisions of the RTI Act, but when it refused to interfere, a petition was
filed in the Supreme Court in August this year.
SC took up
the matter for hearing on September 25 and issued notice to the assembly
secretariat, asking it to reply in six weeks.
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