Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec 5: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered all High Courts to respond to the suggested creation of online RTI Portals within three weeks. The problem came up before a bench made up of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha when a lawyer informed the bench that only nine High Courts had submitted their responses in the motion to establish a mechanism for electronically filing Right to Information (RTI) requests and initial appeals in High Courts.
Pravasi Legal Cell, an NGO, submitted the contested plea. NRIs must physically submit applications for whatever information they need from governments, according to the appeal, because there are no online RTI application submission options.
“Right to Information Act provides a legal mechanism to enforce and implement the citizen’s right to information guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) and Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The present system of submitting RTI applications and the corresponding reply from the concerned information officer in physical form take more time which in turn reduces the efficiency of the entire RTI mechanism thus defeating the very purpose of the legislation,” as per the petition.
Upon hearing that most High Courts had not yet launched the RTI Portals, CJI Chandrachud remarked–
“The High Courts which have not filed their response on the proposed setting up of the online RTI portals shall do so positively within a period of 3 weeks. We’ll keep it on the reopening.“
The matter will now be heard post vacations.
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