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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Ex-IC Gandhi blames Delhi high court for thwarting RTI initiatives-Abhinav Garg

Ex-IC Gandhi blames Delhi high court for thwarting RTI initiatives-Abhinav Garg

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published Published on Jul 13, 2012   modified Modified on Jul 13, 2012
-The Times of India

Outgoing information commissioner (IC) Shailesh Gandhi has blamed the Delhi high court for frustrating the purpose of the RTI Act by staying several CIC orders.

In a 56-page reply filed in the HC in response to a petition against him filed by a CIC official, Gandhi has dismissed charges of bias and questioned the court's practice of granting ex-parte stays on CIC verdicts. "It appears Delhi high court has made ex-parte stays in a considerable number of petitions against CIC. After the stays are granted proceedings languish in HC and as a result of the stay, proceedings before CIC come to a standstill. This frustrates the entire purpose of the RTI Act where information is required to be provided within 30 days of application being received," Gandhi stated in his reply to the HC.

He said that the HC should, in the larger public interest, "look at the various cases pending where ex-parte stays have been granted which continues without vacation or confirmation for long periods of time."

Gandhi's counter came after the HC recently stayed his order setting up an inquiry against some senior officers of the transparency panel for their alleged failure to reply to an RTI query filed in December, 2010. Justice Vipin Sanghi had stayed Gandhi's order setting up an inquiry against Anita Gupta, First Appellate Authority; M C Sharma, retired PIO; S Padmanabha, CPIO and Akash Deep Chakravarti, Deemed PIO and JS (Law) on an application filed by Naveen Kumar Peer under the Right To Information (RTI) Act alleging that the officials have failed to give "satisfactory" reply to his plea. The HC had passed the order on the plea of Chakravarti, an IAS officer posted with CIC, after he challenged Gandhi's April 19 interim order for the inquiry and argued the CIC had already created a full bench to deal with the case yet the ex-IC went ahead and passed orders.

Gandhi has refuted all allegations by Chakravarti. He disputed the claim by Chakravarti that the IC is no longer authorized to conduct proceedings in CIC, and cited an office circular empowering him to work as an IC till July 6. Refuting another allegation Gandhi said he didn't initiate any penalty proceedings against Chakravarty and said the petitioner has leveled false allegations against him.

Gandhi and the HC shared an uneasy relationship ever since he was appointed an IC. In another case, the court had observed that Gandhi demonstrated complete lack of judicial discipline and quashed two orders passed by him on appeals by an RTI activist against denial of information sought by him from the Registrar of Companies regarding a firm.

The Times of India, 13 July, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Ex-IC-Gandhi-blames-Delhi-high-court-for-thwarting-RTI-initiatives/articleshow/14858193.cms


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