The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Court orders notice to government, SIC

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 23, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Court orders notice to government, SIC

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered notice to the State government and the State Information Commission (SIC) on a public interest litigation petition for “refining and developing” the functioning of the SIC which, the petitioner said, was now an “anti-thesis of the aspired object and purpose” of the Right to Information Act.

When the matter came up before the First Bench comprising Chief Justice H.L. Gokhale and Justice D. Murugesan, the Government Pleader took notice on behalf of the respondents – the State, represented by the Chief Secretary; the Secretary, Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department, and the Registrar, SIC. He sought time to enable the Registrar to file an affidavit on the state of affairs in the Commission. The Bench posted the matter for August 4. In his petition, C.R. Bhaskaran of T.Nagar said the highest forum under the Act in the State was in a “very bad shape and ridden with malfunctioning, red-tapism, egoistic internal bickerings and lack of transparency.” There was lack of facilities. Some of the disquieting and pinching allegations and functional shortcomings had been pointed out by Information Commissioners in internal notes to the State Chief Information Commissioner. They included observations such as that the Commission was functioning badly, there was abnormal delay in hearing cases, there was no transparency in its functioning, and there was chaos in the office.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu