Indian Express: Chandigarh: Monday, May 27, 2013.
Even after
more than a year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court is yet to submit requisite
information sought by a Sirsa resident under the Right to Information Act. All
this despite orders issued by the Haryana State Information Commission, whereby
the high court was asked to provide the information within 15 days of the order
sought by the applicant and also send a compliance to the commission.
The last
reference was sent by the commission to the HC on April 12 for compliance of
its orders, but the information under the RTI Act is yet to reach the
applicant.
The case
pertains to a RTI application filed by Attar Singh, a resident of Ellanabad,
Sirsa district, in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The applicant filed his
first application on January 2, 2012. In his application filed under the RTI
Act, the applicant sought information pertaining to “file notings, action taken
reports on all registered and telegraphic petitions addressed to the chief
justice and companion judges of the HC from March 1, 1995 to January 1, 2012”.
In the same application, Singh, who is a law student, also demanded that he
should be provided “copies of all the petitions (registered, telegraphic and by
hand) addressed to chief justice”.
When he
failed to get information, Singh exhausted the options available with him under
the RTI Act and finally the case reached the State Information Commisson,
Haryana. On December 7, 2012, Naresh Gulati, Chief Information Commissioner,
Haryana, decided the appeal and directed the applicant to provide specific
details of documents on which he wanted information. The CIC had also directed
Punjab State Public Information Officer (SPIO) and Punjab and Haryana High
Court to furnish requisite information to the applicant within a month from the
receipt of details from the applicant.
Based on the
orders passed by the CIC, Singh sent the details through registered speed post
in January. However, even after four months, the applicant is yet to get
information sought by him.
The applicant
again wrote to the commission on March 4. Based on his letter, the CIC, on
April 12, 2013, sent a reference to the court’s public information
officer-cum-joint registrar (executive) for compliance of the commission’s
orders and also send a compliance report to the commission. Even a month after
CIC “advised” the PIO to comply with its order, the applicant is yet to get the
information sought by him.
What does
applicant’s petitions pertain to ?
In 1995,
Attar Singh and his family members took out a protest march on the streets of
Ellanabad, Sirsa, and spoke against former President of India Shankar Dayal
Sharma. Singh was arrested by the Haryana Police and he was lodged in Sirsa
jail for 10 days. Since 1995, he had been writing to the Punjab and Haryana
High Court seeking action against the police and other authorities responsible
for his arrest and the trauma caused to him and his family. When he did not get
any response from the High Court till January 2012, he sought information under
RTI Act on the status of all the applications sent by him to the court.
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