RTI hearing deferred indefinitely
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Newmai News Network

Imphal, October 24 2012: Implementation of Rights to Information Act has become a big flop show in Manipur with hearing for all the complaints and appeals filed through RTI before Manipur Information Commission (MIC) deferred indefinitely from October 17 .

As per an order by Supreme Court, hearing to all the enquiries should be conducted by a two-member bench from the MIC but the commission now has only one member owing to which the hearing process has been stopped, State Information Commissioner Ch Birendra told a section of media.

He informed MIC has only the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and the State Information Commissioner but the post of the CIC has remained vacant ever since RK Angousana retired from the post on September 12, 2011 .

In this connection, the MIC has already requested the state Government to fill up the vacant post but no step has been taken yet till today to facilitate it, Birendra lamented.

Under this circumstance, the MIC cannot take up any proceeding with regard to the complaints and appeals filed before it through Right to Information Act as it would be against the order of the apex court, he added.

Another order of Supreme Court says the vacant post of the CIC should be filled up by a Chief Justice of the High Court or a Judge of the apex court.

In the case of the post of State Information Commissioner (SIC), a Judge of the High Court should fill it up, he informed.

Considering the order of the apex court, it would naturally make difficult for the state to fill up the vacant CIC post, Birendra further added and drew the attention of the state Government over the affair.

He added the MIC received a total of 38 complaints and six appeals during the period between September 12 and October 17 this year, and another 10 complaints were received from October 17-24 but without a single appeal.

In response to a query on inability of the commission to provide information to RTI petitioners in time, he said such problem is obviously caused by filing of complaints more than necessary and also seeking of unnecessary information from various Government Departments.

However, the state Information Commissioner highlighted the need of seeking information through RTI in proper ways and said all the Government Department should provide the sought information in time at the same time.

Meanwhile, talking to Huiyen Lanpao, State Information Commissioner RK Angousana said that the failure of the state government to fill the post of State Chief Information Commissioner has crippled the proceeding of the Commission.

The matter has been intimated to the government but due to the directives to appoint the post from among the retired Chief Justices of a high court the government too is not in the position to find the right person as there is only one High Court in the entire 8 North Eastern State of India.

Besides the upper age limit for the post is 65 years and some of the retired judges who are eligible for the said post had already crossed the upper age limit.

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