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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stay on HC order bringing Goa Governor under RTI Act by J Venkatesan

Stay on HC order bringing Goa Governor under RTI Act by J Venkatesan

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published Published on Dec 8, 2011   modified Modified on Dec 8, 2011

Bombay HC had said he enjoyed no such immunity
 
The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the orders of the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court which held that the Governor of Goa was a public authority and would come within the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The High Court had held that the Governor enjoyed no immunity from the RTI Act and that the Public Information Officer at the Raj Bhavan was duty-bound to furnish information sought under the Act. The High Court also asked the Raj Bhavan to make public the Governor's report to the Centre on the political situation in the State during July-August 2007.

A three-judge Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari, T.S. Thakur and Dipak Misra stayed the orders on an appeal filed by the State of Goa against the High Court orders dated November 14. Pointing out that important questions of law had been raised in this appeal, the Bench said it would examine them and directed the matter to be listed after six weeks.

In the appeal, Goa said the High Court had erred in not considering that Governor “is not a ‘public authority' for the purposes of the RTI Act.”

The High Court had not considered that in “our constitutional democracy, it is the consolidated will of the people, as the Constitution which is the sovereign, and the high constitutional offices of the President and the Governor of State, manifest the sovereign, through whom and under whose name, the authority vests.”

The High Court had failed to consider that under Article 361 of the Constitution immunity was granted to the Governor and he was not answerable to any court or authority in exercise and performance of his power.”

Further it must be noted that Governor was not subordinate to any other entity under the Constitution, and not an ‘authority', but rather the manifestation of the State itself. Any information which is received by the Governor is deemed to be available with the corresponding department/ministry of the State government, since the Governor is the appointing authority of the State Information Commissioner and as he is also vested with the power to recommend for removal, the Governor's office could not be made subservient by bringing it under the ambit of RTI Act.

The State sought quashing of the impugned orders and an interim stay of all further proceedings.

The Hindu, 9 December, 2011, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2699798.ece


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