The Hindu: Chennai: Monday, December 18, 2017.
Public
Information Officer told to share details of action taken with Madras High
Court, petitioner
The Tamil
Nadu State Information Commission (TNSIC) has ordered the public authorities in
the office of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ramanathapuram, to share details
of action taken in a case where documents of evidence in a criminal case went
missing.
P. Baskaran,
the petitioner, had moved the TNSIC, stating that his evidence, recorded in a
criminal case at the Judicial Magistrate court, had vanished, and sought to
know the action taken on the staff concerned.
The court
authorities issued a notice to the magisterial clerk seeking his explanation on
December 15, 2015, and obtained his reply a couple of days later. However, a
decision to accept the explanation was taken two years later and that too after
the petitioner moved a petition under the RTI.
The TNSIC, in
its detailed order, noted that the Chief Judicial Magistrate and the Judicial
Magistrate-1, Ramanathapuram district, did not appear for the final hearing,
and instead, deputed their representatives.
Public
interest
Though the
details sought by the petitioner on the proceedings of action taken by the
court authorities on the missing documents could be denied under Section
8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, the TNSIC held that disclosing the information in this
matter was in “larger public interest” considering the nature of allegations.
Taking into
account the statement of the court authorities that the criminal case was
completed based on fresh examination of witnesses and the point raised by the
petitioner that his offer to submit again the documents that went missing was
not accepted, the commission said it could not pass any orders on the issue.
However, the
public authority was ordered to give copies of the report sent by the Chief
Judicial Magistrate to the Madras High Court on the missing documents and the
action taken on the same to the petitioner.
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