Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 21: Over six years after the enactment of Right to Information Act by the State Legislature, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has framed the rules to enforce transparency law in effective manner and ensure that applications of the information seekers don’t remain un-disposed for quite long time and issue of multiple applications is redressed.
The J&K Right to Information Act was enacted by the State Legislature in the year 2009 and it received the nod of Governor on March 20, 2009. The objective behind enactment of this legislation was to set out the regime of Right to Information for the people of the State to secure access to information and to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority.
Under Section 2(b) of Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009, Chief Justice of the State High Court has been declared as competent authority and Section 25 states that competent authority may, by a proper notification, make rules to carry out the provisions of the Act without prejudice to the generality of the principal legislation.
Though various High Courts in the country framed such rules, the J&K High Court failed to pay serious attention towards the same despite the fact that State Information Commission had number of times briefed the Public Information Officers (PIOs) of High Court about their mandate in this regard under the RTI Act.
Due to non-framing of rules, even the PIOs of the High Court were finding it difficult to deliver justice to the Right to Information cases. Moreover, they were groping in dark about how to handle multiple applications.
The issue of inordinate delay of over six years in framing of rules was brought to the fore by EXCELSIOR in its edition dated April 22, 2015. It was stated in the exclusive news-item that Chief Information Commissioner, G R Sufi while disposing of a latest appeal on the issue, has hoped that High Court would wake up to the situation and frame the rules on the analogy of High Courts of other States in the country.
Now, the Chief Justice of State High Court has framed the rules in exercise of the power conferred by Sub-Section 1 of Section 25 read with Section 2(b)(ii) of the RTI Act, 2009. These rules have been christened as J&K High Court (Right to Information) Rules.
These Rules clearly state that if the requested information doesn’t fall within the jurisdiction of the authorized person, it shall transfer the application or such part of it, as is beyond his jurisdiction, to that other authority along with fees as soon as practicable but not later than five days from the date of receipt of application. “In the absence of Rules, this aspect was not being handled in the right way by the PIOs of the High Court”, sources said.
While clearly spelling out handling of applications and their rejection, the Rules say: “The information shall be supplied as soon as practicable and in any case not later than 30 days from the date of receipt of the application. However, if the information sought for, concerns the life or liberty of a person, same shall be provided within 48 days of the receipt of the request”.
The information which relates to judicial functions and duties of the court and matters incidental and ancillary thereto has been kept out of the purview of the Rules. Moreover, the information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by the court or the disclosure whereof may constitute contempt of court or information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension of prosecution of offenders, has also been kept out of the purview of the Rules.
“Any information affecting the confidentiality of any examination conducted by High Court shall also remain out of the purview of Rules and the question of confidentiality shall be decided by the competent authority whose decision shall be final”, the Rules state.
As far as penalties are concerned, the Rules say: Whoever being found to supply information, fails to furnish the same within the time specified or fails to communicate the rejection order by notification or where the information supplied is found to be false in any material, shall be liable to pay penalty up to Rs 250 per day for the delayed period beyond 30 days subject to maximum of Rs 25000 per application. Moreover, the appellate authority shall recommend the disciplinary action against the authorized officer under the Service Rules applicable to him.
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