UNUSUAL PRACTICE
Depts forcing RTI applicants to show up
Jeeva TNN Chennai: V Gopalakrishnan, a right to information (RTI) activist in KK Nagar, was shocked when the directorate of income-tax (investigation) in Nungambakkam sent a communication asking him to appear “without fail” for a hearing on April 26, 2009. For a moment, he could not make out why he was being summoned as if he has committed some offence. Only after reading the communication fully, Gopalakrishnan realised that he was asked to appear for a hearing on his RTI appeal. Gopalakrishnan had sought for the procedure to complain about tax evasion. While the state and the central information commissions alone have the powers under the RTI Act to summon the applicants and public authorities, call for records and impose fines, he wondered how the appellate authority in the incometax department act like an information commission. Gopalakrishnan had to avail of a day’s leave from work to appear before the official concerned. “I have filed a lot of RTI applications and appeals with a number of state and the central governments departments in the last four years, but none of them had summoned me for hearing. This sort of unauthorised practice to formally summon the applicants would only discourage people from utilising the RTI Act,’’ Gopalakrishnan said. M Thooyamurthy, another activist in Tondiarpet, was called for ‘direct inquiry’ twice by the fisheries department in connection with two different RTI appeals last year. He had asked for details of the amount allotted towards the education of children in two fishing villages in Tiruvallur district. “The fisheries department could have either given me information or rejected my request. But it summoned me for the inquiry and went to the extent of asking me to bring adequate evidence,’’ Thooyamurthy said. Tamil Nadu State Information Commission’s chief commissioner S Ramakrishnan told The Times of India that government departments had no power under the RTI Act to summon applicants and conduct inquiries on their appeals. “They cannot act like courts and compel applicants to appear before them pertaining to RTI queries. If they do so, the applicants can very well refuse to appear before the public authority. However, there is nothing wrong for a government department to informally request an applicant to visit the office for clarifications,’’ the chief information commissioner added.
