Zee News: New Delhi: Wednesday, 18 February 2015.
Expecting the
government to be a "responsible litigant" and not treat a citizen as
opposite party or its rival, the CIC on Tuesday questioned whether the Centre
has any mechanism to examine each case before appealing against judgements
given in favour of a citizen.
Underlining
that the State has become biggest litigant over a period of time, Information
Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu directed the Law Ministry to prepare a
comprehensive note on status of implementation of National Litigation Policy
2010 and make it public.
"The
Commission is of view that the Union Government has rightly addressed a vital
aspect of the issue, ie that the State itself became a biggest litigant, either
fighting a citizen or its own department or taking every case into appeal
instead of performing the duty of addressing development and welfare of the
people, who challenged its actions," he said.
Hearing an
appeal on the disclosure of the policy, Acharyulu directed the ministry to
provide the RTI applicant the certified copies of the relevant papers regarding
progress of its implementation and also periodical updating of this note after
collecting necessary inputs from the states.
"While
it is ideal that every litigant should be responsible, State is also expected
to be a 'responsible litigant', which means, 'that litigation will not be
resorted to for the sake of litigating, that false pleas and technical points
will not be taken and shall be discouraged, ensuring that the correct facts and
all relevant documents will be placed before the court, and that nothing will
be suppressed from the court and there will be no attempt to mislead any court
or tribunal'," Acharyulu said in his order.
"The
Commission finds a huge public interest in this RTI application, which should
have been properly responded," he said as he stressed that the application
was an opportunity for the ministry to explain the people about their efforts
to reduce litigation and report the progress.
.JPG)
.JPG)
