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Ahmedabad, April 14: While the Right to Information (RTI) Act has empowered civil society, misuse of the same would defeat the very tenets of the act, said Justice DS Sinha, president, Gujarat State Human Rights Commission. He was speaking at a seminar organised by Rule of Law Society, (Gujarat Chapter) on Information Rights here on Saturday. “The efficacy and effects of a weapon depends on who wields it and on whom it is used,” Sinha said adding that the act aims at empowering people to fight corruption. “The aim of the act is not to take you to heaven, but to save you from hell,” Sinha added.
State Chief Information Commissioner RN Das, in his address said that the act has empowered the weaker sections of the society in a big way. “At least in Gujarat, all the landmark orders passed by the Information Commission has been in the cases of small people, who cannot afford the long-drawn legal cases,” Das added.
Lauding the stance taken by the State Government with regard to RTI and Information Commission, Das said that so far there has not been a single case, where the orders of the Information Commission have been challenged by the State Government in the court of law. “Once a strong message is sent across the official structure, that the makers of blunders will not be protected by the state mechanism, the functioning of the commission becomes much smooth,” Das added.
Das observed that while Gujarat has fared much better than other places in terms of implementing the act, much needs to be still done in this direction. He further pointed out that the State Information Commission has written to the State Government to accept any mode of payment as the fees payable for accessing information under RTI as it is often difficult for a rural man to access the specified mode of payment.
Das however, pointed out that the state and its citizens should not be placed in adversarial position. “If too many questions are asked in one petition, it may not be always possible to get all the information within the stipulated one month’s time,” Das sai |