The Hindu: Madurai: Tuesday, August
02, 2016.
Back in 2012,
an 84-year-old A. Syed Abdul Rahim was on cloud nine because a series of
applications filed by him under the Right to Information (RTI) Act helped him
legally assert ownership over three public streets at Anna Nagar here. However,
now he is disillusioned.
Mr. Rahim who
obtained a civil court decree in August 2012 declaring a 40-foot-wide road,
named Moulana Sahib Street, on 54.5 cents of land and two 30-foot-wide roads,
named Periyar Street (17.5 cents) and Kamarajar Street (22.5 cents), to be his
private properties is now unable to obtain crucial documents to defend an
appeal preferred by Madurai Corporation since the information is being denied
to him.
His
brother-in-law F.M. Jamiluddin (79), who has been drafting his RTI
applications, says in 1948 Mr. Rahim’s parents S. Abbas and A. Sunna Beevi
owned about 10 acres in what is now Anna Nagar when a scheme, named Mathichiyam
Part II Town Planning Scheme, was framed for the development of areas abutting
Madurai Town.
The couple
divided their land into residential plots for sale and left about 95 cents of
their property for formation of the three roads under the scheme hoping that
they would be acquired by the local bodies.
Since Madurai
Corporation did not acquire the three scheme roads from them and pay necessary
compensation, the couple began filing a series of writ petitions in the Madras
High Court since 1981.
In 1991,
Justice S. Ramalingam held that the Corporation could not be compelled to
acquire a particular land but said the three streets would remain as a private
property and the owners could restrain people from using them as public roads.
The decision was upheld by a Division Bench.
After the
couple’s death, the Corporation invoked Section 254 of the Madurai Municipal
Corporation Act and issued a gazette notification in August 1998 declaring the
three streets as public property. Though Mr. Rahim filed a writ petition
challenging the notification, the matter was put in cold storage until the RTI
Act came into force.
In 2007, Mr.
Rahim filed a civil suit seeking a compensation of Rs. 1.97 crore on the
strength of voluminous documents accessed through the RTI Act, and obtained a
favourable decree in 2012. But the civic body belatedly preferred an appeal
before the Madras High Court Bench in July last and obtained a stay order.
Explaining
the reason for the delay, the then Corporation Commissioner contended that the
file relating to the case had gone missing and it was traced only after Mr.
Rahim took steps to get the Corporation building attached for non-payment of
compensation.
However, to
disprove the claim, Mr. Rahim again filed a series of RTI applications seeking
copies of various Note Sheets, but in vain. In November 2015, Tamil Nadu State
Information Commission held that the Corporation could not deny the
information. Yet the civic body remained silent, prompting him to approach the
Commission again. But this time, the Commission on June 29 took a different
stand and said note files were privilege documents and could not be disclosed.
“I have all
along been successful in obtaining information under the RTI Act but over the
years, I feel that information has become hard to come by even under this
legislation,” Mr. Jamiluddin laments.
He is now
unable to obtain crucial documents to defend an appeal preferred by Madurai
Corporation.
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