Anil Galgali has raised serious concern in a letter addressed to the
Governor, CM & CS about a recent controversial order issued by an eqally
controversial Chief Information Commissioner, which exceeds his brief and powers
conferred by the RTI Act to actually thwart and throttle the implementation of
the RTI Act to meet aspirations of the common man. RTI Act was implemented by
the Govt to bring transparency in its activities and to ensure empowerment of
common man to protect its interests. But it has now come to notice that the
various positions created by the Act to protect the basic tenets of provisions
in the Act are assuming the role of Law making body bypassing the Govt and
Parliament / Legislature to pass rules which are against the framework of the
Act as well as impediments in the deliverance of justice through the
Act.
Recently on 26/09/2013 the Chief Information Commissioner Mr Ratnakar
Gaikwad passed an order addressed to The Principal Secretary, Urban Development
Dept, Govt of Maharashtra stating that Under RTI Act Section 19(8)( c ) &
Section 25 (5) all the public Planning Authorities like Municipal Corporations,
Municipal Council’s and special planning authorities like MMRDA, SRA, Region
wise Planning Authorities should refuse to give information about Sanction plans
of Buildings and structures belonging to Govt / Semi Govt Offices, Hotels,
Gymkhana, Hospitals, Malls, IT Buildings and commercial buildings.
Mr Anil Galgali in his representeation addressed to the Governor Shri
K Shankarnarayan, Chief Minister Shri Prithviraj Chavan & Chief secretary
Shri Jayant Banthiya has questioned the wisdom of the Chief Information
Commissioner in issueing such an Order which is bad in law, without application
of mind, illegal and Unconstitution & against RTI Act. The role of any
Information Commissioner is to allow dissemination of Information on Case to
case basis, The position of the Commissioner has quasi – judicial powers. The
Commissioner has to pass orders within the purview of RTI Act on a case which
is presented before it. It has no powers to pass any General Orders / Law (which
is vested with either the Govt or the Legislature). The Order issued is not on
the basis of any matter / case before it. Hence the order is illegal, bad in law
and unconstitutional, without application of mind, added Galgali.
The contents and implications of the orders has now raised questions
about the intentions and the actual purpose of such an order and also leading to
speculations of the actual beneficiaries of the orders, as this has come on a
occasion where the Country is discussing the illegalities in the Campa Cola
compound, it has also to be noted that almost 52% of buildings in city like
Mumbai do not have OC’s. Such order will ensure that the illegalities committed
by the builders in collusion with corrupt babu’s and neta’s are always buried.
The Common man will never ever get to know about illegalities committed in a
building in which he proposes to buy a flat / shop which in future, it will
ensure repetition of Campa Cola type incidents, said Galgali.
Mr Galgali further pointed that the RTI Act provides the Public
Information Officer with powers to decide / allow or reject information to an
applicant on the basis of its merit. If the applicant feels aggrieved by the
decision, then he has the right to appeal before the 1st Appellate and if
necessary the 2nd Appellate - the Information Commissioner himself. But instead
to allowing the procedure to function as per the Act, Mr Gaikwad is trying to
thwart the procedure to throttle the dissemination of information and also
impinging on the powers conferred to the Public Information Officer as well as
the 1st Appellate Officer. This Order, which has been issued with malafide
intentions to protect vested interests of certain people is compromising the
interests of Common Man. Mr Galgali also demanded to know which structure’s
security interests was compromised by giving away the building plans and
drawings? Mr Galgali finally demanded before the Governor to cancel the illegal
order, which also impinges on the Powers of the Govt & Legislature to
formulate.Information Commission which was formed to ensure transparency and deliverance of information assumes role of lawmaking.
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