-: [rti4empowerment] RE: from Roby Sharma RTI Prevails over Supreme Court Rules Order of CIC stayed by High Court Please forward to all RTI Forums

Thursday, June 2, 2011

[rti4empowerment] RE: from Roby Sharma RTI Prevails over Supreme Court Rules Order of CIC stayed by High Court Please forward to all RTI Forums

RTI prevails over Supreme Court Rules

The Judgment delivered on this by CIC on 11-05-2011 in case of R.S.Misra V/s Mrs Smita Vats CPIO Supreme Court of India seems to have been stayed by the Delhi Court.In this respect I have got email of Mukund Parikh as follows:- Dear Fellow citizen,

I attach herewith a copy of the judgment of Shri Shailesh Gandhi which is stayed by Delhi HC. In view of this intervene in Writ Petition for quashing the stay order is to be made. First & foremost, my sincere appreciation to Shri Shailesh Gandhi who has passed this exceptional order (like many of his other) with regard to SC Rules vis-à-vis RTI Act. This order is well reasoned and needs to be held in public interest and any your efforts for its affirmation shall be exemplary service to civil society and survival of RTI Act. There are several instances for refusal of information by Bombay HC also on similar ground as specified in the judgment of Shri Shailesh Gandhi. It is nothing but to make RTI Act defunct at almost all levels. Please explore all possibilities how best you can help to this cause and oblige.

Mukund Parikh / Mumbai

mkppm@yahoo.co.in/ 09967830099

In this connection my comments are:-

That for following the Supreme Court Rules / High Court Rules, to get a Copy of any Judgment or copy of some Writ Petition or Copy of any Counter filed etc, one would need to come to Delhi and engage a Lawyer and then apply and get the Required Copies, this would mean expenditure of tens of thousands of Rupees.
The Supreme Court /High Courts have already fixed an exorbitant Application fee of Rs 500/= against the normal Rupees ten elsewhere for RTI Applications and even then they do not want to give any Information and are behaving like Gods. It is a shame that the Guardian of Law in India is stooping so low and so egoistic to negate the Rights given to the Citizens by the RTI Act, just so that they can save their already pampered and over paid employees from some extra work load.
Often the Advocates abandon the cases and it is almost impossible for any client even to enter the Supreme Court or the high Court, for which a pass is required which again you need a Advocate to vouch for you so that you can get a pass.
I recollect that a few years ago (it may even be continuing now) to submit a tender in Kerala you needed to file an affidavit oin Kerakla Stamp Paper, typed in the local Language , which was an impossibility and so there was no competition and the Local parties were able to get orders at inflated rates In many other States, same thing was there. So there were obstacles everywhere to avoid competition and the Government Officers designed such rules so that they could keep out undesirable outside parties and could deal only with the known local parties.
RTI Act gives the Right to the Citizens to avoid such exorbitant cost for getting the Copies of required Documents and the need to engage a Lawyer is done away with . However nobody has raised this aspect of the problem, even Sri Sailesh Gandhi has not considered this in his Order. Unless this aspect is highlighted before the Delhi High Court or the Supreme Court, this evil will not go away.
I am ready to contribute Rs two Thousand for the Cause if Mr Mukund Parikh wants to file an impleadment application in Delhi High Court. I am sure that others will also contribute. His contact information is given below.