DNA:
Mumbai: Wednesday, 14 January 2015.
The Bombay
high court on Monday directed the state government to submit an affidavit on
the PIL filed by an RTI activist stating that the chief information
commissioner (CIC) encroached on the jurisdiction of the governor. The
affidavit has to be filed in three weeks. The order was given by chief justice
Mohit Shah and justice BP Colabawalla of the Bombay high court.
The Bombay
high court on Monday directed the state government to submit an affidavit on
the PIL filed by an RTI activist stating that the chief information
commissioner (CIC) encroached on the jurisdiction of the governor. The
affidavit has to be filed in three weeks. The order was given by chief justice
Mohit Shah and justice BP Colabawalla of the Bombay high court.
What
exactly is the issue?
Due to
vacancy and mounting second appeals, state CIC Ratnakar Gaikwad had changed the
bench of Ravindra Jadhav, information commissioner of the Amravati bench, to
Pune bench.
What's the
problem in it?
RTI activist
Vijay Kumbhar, who filed the PIL, questioned the move of the commissioner. In
the PIL, he stated that the info chief misused his power under the RTI Act. He
contended that he can only supervise the functioning and that appointing a
commissioner to a bench can be done only by the governor. Anil Galgali, another
activist who too had complained on the issue, had written to the government on
the powers of the commissioner and its appointment. He was told that names for
commissioners are to be recommended by a committee led by the chief minister
and the appointments done by the governor.
What does
CIC have to say?
State chief
information commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad did not reply to the message sent by
dna. The next hearing of the case is scheduled to be heard on February 9.
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