Srinagar
Jammu and Kashmir High Court division bench has sought compliance from Government through General Administration Department (GAD) by May 15th on Proactive disclosure of information under section 4 of Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act (JK RTI Act 2009).
The spokesman said while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Jammu & Kashmir RTI Movement through its Founder and Chairman Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat , J&K High Court Division bench lead by acting Chief Justice S Ramalingam and Justice M K Hanjura directed the Government counsel to file a detailed compliance report about the implementation of section 4 of J&K RTI Act 2009 wherein all the Public Authorities have to make proactive disclosure of information on 17 points.
As per the provisions of State RTI Act the said disclosure was to be made within 120 days of enactment of RTI Act in J&K , but the petitioner organization has alleged that even after 9 years of enactment of the J&K RTI Act 2009, the voluntary disclosure of information is still not being done by most of the Government departments.
The petitioner Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat in his petition prayed before the High Court that petitioner organization is actively engaged in creating awareness about Right to Information Act, its advocacy and implementation across the State of Jammu & Kashmir.
“State Information Commission (SIC) tried its best to impress upon Government to implement section 4 of J&K RTI Act. The Government hardly cared to adhere to SICs several notices. We as a responsible and organized group were forced to seek the intervention of Hon’ble High Court. We appreciate the order of J&K High Court. The preamble of the J&K RTI Act 2009 lays down an objective of the law in wider and specific terms to the effect that the legislation will promote transparency and accountability in the working of the public authorities in order to ensure good governance in the state, but inspite of 9 years of enactment of this law Government is yet to make disclosure of funding for its welfare schemes , beneficiary list of Govt subsidies, MLAs CDF details are not available on J&K Assembly website, compensation paid and assessments made to affected farmers during land acquisition is not made proactively available by Government, policy decisions etc are not made available voluntarily “the spokesman quoted Dr Raja Muzaffar saying.
