High Court Seeks Response Of Haryana Govt On Implementation Of RTI Act At Gram Panchayat Level, Flags Harassment Of Villagers

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has directed Haryana's Secretary, Rural Development Department, Haryana as well as the Director and Special Secretary of the Rural Development Department to state steps taken for implementation of the RTI Act at the Gram Panchayat level including uploading of the relevant information about the receipt of grants/funds as well as their utilization.

It also sought details on the appointment of the State Public Information Officers (SPIO) for an individual Gram Panchayat.

Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu highlighted that inhabitants of villagers are compelled to file writ petitions in the High Court because they are not provided information under RTI on "grants/funds received/utilized by the respective Gram Panchayat(s) and invariably."

"One of the major causes for harassment of the rural inhabitant(s) is that no SPIO is appointed for an individual Gram Panchayat(s) in the State of Haryana, despite the fact that these democratic institutions are functioning at grass root level in terms of Article 243(d) and 243-B of the Constitution of India," the judge added.

"Thus, prima facie, there would be no hesitation to observe that Gram Panchayat being the “Public Authority” would be duly covered under Section 5 of the RTI Act," said the Court.

The Court also cited the example of Uttar Pradesh, where respective Panchayat Secretaries have been appointed as SPIOs for an individual Gram Panchayat under the RTI Act and citizens can access information and obtain photocopies of the documents by applying to the Panchayat Secretary on a plain piece of paper after paying the requisite fee i.e. Re.1 per page.

These observations were made while hearing a writ petition of one Bhagwat Dayal, who sought direction to quash the order passed by the State Information Commissioner, Haryana whereby his second appeal under the Right to Information Act, 2005, was dismissed.

Dayal submitted an application in 2019 under the RTI Act seeking certain information regarding the annual amounts received by Gram Panchayat-Haripur, District Faridabad, from 2015 to 2019 and spent for development works.

The Court noted that it "has come across that inhabitant(s) of the village(s) are seeking similar information about the grants/funds received/utilized by the respective Gram Panchayat(s) and invariably, the needful is not being done by the quarter concerned on one pretext or the other resulting into filing of the various avoidable writ petitions."

Considering the importance of the issue the Court impleaded the State of Haryana through the Commissioner & Secretary, Rural Development Department, Haryana as well as the Director & Special Secretary, Rural Development Department, Haryana as respondents.

While issuing notice it directed them to "file their respective affidavits, indicating the steps taken for implementation of the RTI Act at Gram Panchayat level, including uploading of the relevant information about the receipt of grants/funds as well as utilization thereof and also for appointment of the SPIOs for an individual Gram Panchayat(s)."

Stating that the needful be done before the date fixed, the Court deferred the matter to September 19.

Ms. Kamaldeep Kaur, Advocate for Mr. Adarsh Jain, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. Krishan K. Chahal, Addl. AG Haryana.

Title: Bhagwat Dayal Versus State Information Commission and others

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