Daily
Pioneer: Lucknow: Tuesday, 29 September 2015.
The Right to
Information (RTI) Act, which has widely used by citizens and civil society
across India to seek information about Government actions and follow-up
exercise, has now been turned into a tool by residents of Uttar Pradesh to know
‘hidden’ truths about their family members to resolve family disputes.
The blatant
use of the Central Act came to light after applications from Bijnor and
Moradabad reached State Information Commissioner Hafiz Usman, who is also
acting as a counsellor in a case to sort out issues between a man and his wife.
Bhudev Prasad
Gautam, hailing from Brijesh Nagar in Saharanpur, filed an RTI plea with Gram
Panchayat Adhikari of Aurangapur Hardoj locality of Kiratpur block in Bijnor,
seeking to know the name of his father-in-law, Om Prakash Sharma, a resident of
Najeebabad in Bijnor. Gautam’s eldest daughter Jyoti Sharma has sought half of
her father’s property and his retirement benefits claiming to be the only child
of her father’s “first” wife. To prove his daughter’s claim wrong, Gautam has
sought to establish that he didn’t marry twice and that the maternal
grandfather of Jyoti is his “only” father-in-law.
Gautam has
five children three daughters Jyoti, Prathibha, Pooja and two sons Gaurav and
Saurabh. All are married. Jyoti wants half of her father’s property, and that
is why she has claimed to be the only child of her father’s first wife. She
filed a case in the Saharanpur court in this regard. Gautam has claimed that
the mother of all five children is the same person. And for this, he filed a
plea to establish that Jyoti’s mother Shahshi Bala, as mentioned by her in the
court, and his wife Shashi Bala, were the same person. The State Information
Commissioner ordered an enquiry into the matter by Bijnor District Magistrate,
but added that if the issue is not resolved than he will order a DNA test to
confirm Jyoti’s claim.
In another
case, Rumana Israr, a resident of Kot Baradari in Bareilly, filed a RTI
application seeking information of caste of her husband, Abrar Miya, posted as
crafts instructor at Juvenile Home in Moradabad. Rumana claimed that her
husband had got the job showing himself to be of backward class but during
marriage, he concealed that he was from backward class.
The State
Information Commissioner has asked Moradabad District Magistrate to investigate
the matter.
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