Indian Express: Mumbai: Wednesday,
November 02, 2016.
Former
Central Information Commissioner (CIC) Shailesh Gandhi has called for a strong
public opinion-building movement to highlight the precarious condition of the
Right to Information (RTI) Act due to the “lackadaisical” attitude of both the
Information Commissioner (IC)s and the government servants. Gandhi who is
hailed for highest disposal rate of second appeals said that the powers that be
are the biggest threat to the RTI Act, both in the country and the state.
In a letter
to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Gandhi had highlighted the pitiable state
of RTI in the state and had asked for quick appointment of commissioners.
Responding to his letter, the chief minister’s office has promised to look into
the matter.
According to
Gandhi, improper interpretation of some of the judgments regarding RTI, by both
the Information Commissioner and Public Information Officers (PIO)s, pose a
serious threat to the act.
“Without
going into the reasoning of the judgment, they are being used to throttle the
Act,” he said.
Citing his
own example, Gandhi said his second appeal before the Central commission
regarding disclosure of Income Tax returns of former deputy Chief Minister Ajit
Pawar was disposed off by citing Supreme Court judgments. “It is necessary to
have a strong public opinion regarding recent events. It was the public opinion
from various quarters which had saved the Central government’s earlier attempts
to amend the law. We need another such movement to save the Act from being made
toothless,” he said.
Over the last
few years, RTI users have been increasingly vocal about the delay in receiving
information. Also, appeals tend to stay pending for years before both the state
and Central Commissioners, which defeats the purpose of the Act. In
Maharashtra, of the seven benches, two are vacant with additional charges being
given to other commissioners. As a result, the pendency of cases has shot up.
Pune and Amravati benches have more than 8,000 pendency with cases dating back
to 2013-14 being heard now.
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