Citizens of Bihar get back their right to second appeal under RTI Act
23 Apr, 2013Patna High Court has quashed sub-section(2) of section 6 of the Bihar Right to Information Rule, 2006 as per which an order from the first appellant authority was required before an appeal could be filed to the state information commission (SIC).
Based on the said provision of the Bihar RTI Rules, the SIC had barred the RTI applicants from filing second appeal with the commission. Though the order from the earlier chief information commissioner of SIC was reversed by the present incumbent, the corresponding amendments were not made in the Bihar RTI rules.
Patna High Court, in the course of a hearing, found that section 6 (2) of the state rules is not in line with section 19(3) A second appeal against the decision under sub-section (1) shall lie within ninety days from the date on which the decision should have been made or was actually received, with the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission: Provided that the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, may admit the appeal after the expiry of the period of ninety days if it is satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from filing the appeal in time. of the main Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 which states that “A second appeal against the decision under sub-section (1) shall lie within ninety days from the date on which the decision should have been made or was actually received...”
The high court has now directed the state government to immediately amend the Bihar RTI Rules, 2006 and make it consistent with Section 19 (3) of the RTI Act. The court has given a deadline of 90 days to the state government for the necessary amendments.