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Court stays info panel's order to State

Correspondent

CUTTACK: The High Court on Tuesday gave an interim order staying the operation of the order passed by the State Information Commission with regard to parting with information on the Judicial Commission report of the 1999 Sorana police firing incident.

The commission, in January this year, ordered the government to provide a copy of the inquiry report to human rights activist Biswa Priya Kanungo.

A Division Bench, comprising Justices I.M. Quddusi and Sanju Panda, taking up a writ petition filed by the government ordered "not to give effect" to the January 9 order of the commission.

The court also directed the government to make the commission an Opposite Party in its writ petition. The matter was fixed for final disposal on May 9.

Mr. Kanungo applied to the government asking for a copy of the inquiry report of Justice P.K. Tripathy over police firing in which at least three fishermen were killed.

State's contention

The government rejected the application on the grounds that the report was not yet been placed before the Assembly.

Mr. Kanungo then approached the State Information Commission, which had asked the government to provide the information under the Right to Information Act.

Opposite party

Challenging the order of the commission, the government filed a writ petition before the high court seeking a stay on the operation of the commission's order.

Filing its counter to the government's petition, the counsel for Mr. Kanungo argued that the petition was not maintainable because the commission had not been made an Opposite Party in the case.

Asking the government to make the commission an Opposite Party, the court fixed May 9 for the final verdict.

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