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Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 14
The Supreme Court today asked the Centre and states to respond in two weeks to a PIL demanding setting up of a web portal for filing RTI applications online.
A Bench headed by Justice NV Ramana gave two weeks to the Centre and states to file their replies after senior advocate Sanjay Hegde submitted on behalf of the petitioner that only 10 states had responded.
The Bench, which had on August 26 issued notices to the Centre and states on a PIL filed by Pravasi Legal Cell, also gave two weeks to the petitioner for filing its rejoinder and posted the matter for hearing after four weeks.
The Centre has established an online RTI portal in which any citizen, including NRIs, can apply for information under the RTI Act with the desired ministry or department. The Centre had in 2013 requested state governments to explore the feasibility of implementing online RTI but only Maharashtra and Delhi had executed it so far, and in most states, RTI applications were filed though hand-written applications.
The NGO said it had approached the authorities concerned with a representation in March this year but no response was received.
“A person seeking information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act from any department of the state government, at present has to make a physical application and cannot do so through any electronic means,” the petition submitted. It said “online web portal will only help the Indian citizens, including theNRIs, by speedy dissemination of information requested ”.
Seeks report on stubble fires
As Delhi’s air quality deteriorated to “very poor”, the Supreme Court on Monday sought a status report from the Environment Ministry in two weeks on the recommendations of a task force on prevention of stubble-burning in Punjab, Haryana and western UP.
Senior advocate Aparajita Singh — who has been amicus curiae in pollution-related cases — told a Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra that the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change should be asked to file a status report on the problem.
The amicus curiae drew the court’s attention to the January 29, 2018, order of the court passed after perusing a report of a sub-committee of the high-level task force on prevention of stubble-burning in these three states was accepted.
PIL on linking Aadhaar to social media rejected
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking a direction to the Centre to introduce measures to link social media accounts with Aadhaar to check fake news and paid news, saying everything didn't need to come to it. Noting that the issue was already pending before the Madras High Court, a Bench headed by Justice Deepak Gupta gave liberty to the petitioner, Delhi BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, to approach the high court. TNS
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