Creation of RTI portal in J&K: HC directs Govt to take call on representation

Srinagar: The High Court on Thursday directed Jammu and Kashmir government to take within 90 days a call upon a representation made by two lawyers with regard to setting up an RTI portal to file online applications for collecting information from any department of the Government.

Disposing of a Public Interest litigation filed by two lawyers Muhammad Tuyyab Malik and Muhammad Khurram Qureshi, a division bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Sindhu Sharma said: “We consider it appropriate to dispose of the petition with the direction to the Chief Secretary to take a call upon the representation of the petitioners and to pass a speaking order on it, most expeditiously, preferably, within a period of three months from the date a copy of this order is produced before him”.

   

The Court however said it would be open for the petitioners to make a fresh comprehensive representation in line with the representation already made so as to request the Chief Secretary to provide the facility of online RTI Portal.

In a Public Interest Litigation filed in February this year, the two lawyers had sought direction to the government to establish an online RTI request portal so that the citizens may be able to file online applications for the purposes of collecting information from any department of the government.

They said that the Central Government has already requested all the State and Union Territory Governments to enable the citizens to file online applications for collecting information from the various departments.

The petitioners said they made various representations in this regard but no action was taken and the online RTI Portal facility was not being made available to the citizens. The latest representation the petitioners said was made to the Chief Secretary on December 12 last year.

The petitioners who appeared in person submitted before the court that residents of J&K are facing extreme difficulties in filing and following up on the applications and appeals filed under the Right to Information Act, 2005.

The Central Government, they said, has already developed the source codes required to implement the mechanism by the states and is ready to provide the necessary technical support for the same.

They submitted that the online RTI portal will enable the residents to file RTI applications without going through the physical process of posting the applications physically or having to visit the offices to get the desired information. “This will facilitate the speedy dispensation of the information sought by the applicants”.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

six + 3 =