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“Chandigarh Administrator exceeded his brief”

CHANDIGARH: Chandigarh-based social activist Hemant Goswami has served a legal notice in his individual capacity on Punjab Governor and Union Territory of Chandigarh Administrator S.F. Rodrigues forewarning him about his and the public’s intention to take civil and criminal action against him for “civil wrongs and even criminal acts punishable under the law of the land”.

Seeking Rs. 1,200 crore as damage caused to people of India, the six-page notice mentions among other things the increased Right To Information(RTI) fee and the changed RTI rules announced by the Administrator using his individual powers under Section 28 of the RTI Act which otherwise enables him to promulgate rules only for his office and not for the whole city.

Releasing copies of the notice to the media, Mr.Goswami claimed that the “said unlawful rules appear to have been promulgated to prevent people from seeking information and creating barriers in obtaining information and thereby challenging the corrupt and incompetent section of the public servants”.

The notice further charges that “by unlawfully imposing a fee on the public by way of increased fee under the ‘Right to Information Act,’ you have imposed an illegal tax on the people of Chandigarh which is prohibited under Article 265 and 285 of the Constitution. It has not been an act done in good faith.”

Alleging that there was a criminal breach of trust with the public, the notice further states: You are not the owner but custodian of all the property and documents addressed/created, executed, produced or under your control. People of India are the real owner of each and every document sent to you, produced by you and under your control. All such documents/articles/records are of great archival and other value. You and your office has not been accepting, under receipt or otherwise, petitions, letters, documents sent in electronic and paper form and addressed to your office.”

The notice also takes up the issue of limiting all peaceful protests to a small site in Sector 25 next to the cremation ground and alleges that the Administrator has “prevented people from exercising the lawful right guaranteed under article 19(1)(b) and suppressed the said right by keeping Chandigarh under a continuous state of emergency against the advice and recommendation of the Inspector General of Police and the other officials.”

It further states that the Administrator of Chandigarh was “not vested with the power to remit the sentence of prisoners as otherwise provided under Section 432 of ‘Criminal Procedure Act’ and by announcing remission of sentence to a section of prisoners on Republic Day, he allowed them to evade the process of law and facilitated their escape from lawful custody”.The notice also touches on issues such as arbitrary and unplanned changes in the Master Plan and layout of Chandigarh, for which the “Administrator was not the competent authority”.

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