PIL seeks voluntary disclosure of info by public authorities Srinagar, Seeking full implementation of the Right to Information Act in Jammu and Kashmir state, a public interest litigation has been filed before the High Court wherein it has been prayed that all government and public authorities be directed to disclose information voluntary as enshrined under Article 4 of the Act. Arguing that court decisions are “public documents”, the PIL has urged the High Court to direct the registry to make all its decisions and orders available online on its official website as is being done by the Supreme Court. In the petition, Mohammd Ashraf Wani, a High Court lawyer through his counsel Firdoos Parray, has argued that there will be no need to submit a written application or pay application fees if Section 4 of the Act is implemented in letter and spirit. The Section 4 of the J&K Right to Information Act, 2009, which is considered the “soul” of the Act, makes it obligatory upon every department or public authority to disclose information voluntarily within a period of 120 days from the enforcement of the Act, which came into being on March 20 in 2009, the petitioner has argued. “Despite many representations and communications made by the state information commission (SIC), Section 4 of the RTI Act, which calls for voluntary disclosure of information by the public authorities, has not been implemented in letter and spirit in the state”, the petitioner has argued in his PIL, which is expected to be listed next week. J&K RTI Act To curb the menace of corruption and to bring transparency and accountability in the system, the state legislature promulgated the J&K Right to Information Act. It was implemented on March 20, 2009Under Section 4 of the Act, it is obligatory upon every department to disclose information voluntarily within a period of 120 days from the enforcement of the ActThe information shall be pro-actively and voluntarily furnished by every government department, semi-government organisation, public sector bank with more than 50% government share, board or a corporation
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 03:12:46 +0000
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