Plea to establish Information Commission Bench in Madurai

A Tirunelveli advocate has filed a public interest litigation petition before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday seeking a direction to the government to set up a Bench of the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission in Madurai.

A Division Bench of Justices M. Duraiswamy and K. Murali Shankar sought a response from the State government in the petition filed by S. Govind of Tirunelveli. He said that a Bench of the information commission in Madurai would benefit the people of southern districts.

The petitioner said that the public preferred an application under the Right to Information Act to learn about the functioning of the government, the officials and get required information. In 30 days the information should be furnished.

In case, the information is not provided within 30 days or an improper information is provided, an appeal can be preferred before the appellate authority of the department concerned. If no information is provided within 45 days, a second appeal can be preferred, he said.

The second appeal is filed before the State Commission. Many Public Information Officers in the department concerned do not handle the RTI applications properly. The failure to provide the information leads to a second appeal.

A number of cases are pending before the State Information Commission and the applicants are unable to receive the information within the stipulated time. At times, the applicants have to appear before the State Commission which is in Chennai.

This causes hardship to the applicants and they have to travel all the way to Chennai for the hearing. As a result, some don’t prefer a second appeal. Therefore, the State should take all necessary steps to establish a Bench of the State Information Commission in Madurai. This would be a boon for the people of the Southern districts, he said.

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