Direction of High Court to Govt. of Odisha to take decision within 2 months about necessity and desirability of providing copies of decision in Odia language to the complainants by the Information Commission -An Outstanding Judgement- Dear friends On 21.3.14, Odisha High Court issued direction to Commissioner-Cum-Secretary to Govt. of Odisha, Information and Public Relation Department, Bhubaneswar to take a decision within a period of two months about desirability and necessity of providing to the complainant-citizens Odia Copies of the decisions rendered in English language by Odisha Information Commission. This outstanding judgement came following a writ petition { W.P. ( Civil ) No. 19857 of 2013 filed by Sri Nilamani Joshi, RTI Activist of Bolangir and Core-body Member of Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan seeking a direction from the court to Odisha Information Commission to provide copy of the decision of cases in Odia language. Since 2006, RTI Activists of Odisha under the banner of OSAA have been demanding in form of organising rally, dharana and demonstration before State Govt. and Odisha Information Commission to make all proactively disclosed information under section 4 (1b) and decision of the Commission in vernacular language (Odia). The Abhijan has also submitted memorandum several times to Governor, Odisha seeking direction in this regard. During RTI campaign, it was found that number of complainants like dalits, tribals, rural people, half-educated urbanites, slum dwellers using RTI to get the information and subsequently harassed by the PIOs in form of denial of information are found frustrated over the decision of the Commission released in English language which neither they could understand nor act on it to get justice. When the complainant-citizens demand Odia copy of their decisions, the Commission simply continues to ignore it or gives useless statement “ they are not bound to do it by the law”. Despite series of action programme, the State Govt. and Odisha Information Commission maintained ominous silence. Finally, RTI Activists decided to resort legal means to get the copy of the decision of their cases in Odia language from the Commission. Accordingly, referring a English-written decision (Second Appeal No. 773/2013) disposed by Sri Tarun Kanti Mishra , State Chief Information Commissioner in which the appellant has sought the copy of the decision in Odia, Sri Nilamani Joshi filed a writ petition in the High Court on 12.8.13. During hearing, the learned counsel representing Odisha Information Commission submitted that there is lack of infrastructure in the establishment of the Commission in translating the decisions rendered in English to Odia language. The Court stated that such a plea does not appear to be tenable especially when forms ( application form, appeal form ) have been prescribed to be filed by the citizens in the vernacular language. It needs to be mentioned here that many State Commissions of AP, Tamil Nandu, Kerala, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh are providing their decisions in their respective state languages which was cited by Sri Sidharth Das, Advocate for Petitioner Sri Joshi during hearing in the court. We the RTI Activists hailed this decision and quite hopeful that the State Govt. and Odisha Information Commission will come out to place all the decisions of the cases in Odia language. Pradip Pradhan National Working Committee Member NCPRI, New Delhi M-9937843482
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 10:36:52 +0000
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