RTI HEARINGS AGAINST GUV SIDHU AND AG KANTAK ON 21ST JAN

PANJIM: The Goa State Chief Information Commissioner Mr. Motilal Kenny will on January 21st hear the two separate petitions filed by Adv. Aires Rodrigues under the Right to Information Act. One is against the Governor of Goa Dr. S.S.Sidhu and the other against the Advocate General of Goa Mr. Subodh Kantak.

While Governor Dr. Sidhu who was directed by the Information Commission to remain present in person has at the last hearing sought constititutional immunity under Article 361 through an application filed by his Secretary. The State Information commission on 21st Jan will hear arguments on the Governor’s plea for immunity.

Adv. Aires Rodrigues’s complaint against the Governor Sidhu follows the stand taken by the Raj Bhavan that the Governor of Goa is not a public authority and does not come within the purview of the RTI Act.

Adv. Rodrigues had sought from Raj Bhavan under the Right to Information Act details of action taken on the complaints made by him to the Governor of Goa against Advocate General of Goa Mr. Subodh Kantak. Adv. Rodrigues had also sought copies of noting sheets and correspondence pertaining to the processing of his complaints against the Advocate General.

In his petition before the State Information Commission Adv. Aires Rodrigues has stated that the office of the Governor is a constitutional post within the definition of “Public authority” under section 2 (h) (a) of the RTI Act.

Adv. Rodrigues has stated that as the Governor is a public authority and with even Public Information Officers under the Act being notified, that Raj Bhavan was bound to furnish the information sought and that the refusal was unreasonable, malafide and without reasonable cause.

In the other complaint filed by Adv. Aires Rodrigues the Goa State Information Commission has directed Goa’s Advocate General Mr. Subodh Kantak to personally appear before the commission on 21st for not complying with the RTI Act for the last five years.

Adv, Rodrigues has in his complaint against Mr. Subodh Kantak submitted that the Advocate General as a “public authority” was required under Section 5 of the Act to designate within 100 days Public Information Officers to provide information to persons requesting the same from the Advocate General’s office.

Adv. Rodrigues has also stated that Section 4 the act required the Advocate General to publish and make public within one hundred and twenty days various information details about the Advocate General’s office.

In his petitions before the State Information Commission Adv. Aires Rodrigues has sought that the Goa Governor and Advocate General of Goa be penalized in terms of section 20 of the RTI Act for not complying with the provisions of the Act.