Petition filed against hearing of RTI appeals by Kerala SIC
9 Nov, 2012A petition has been filed in the Kerala High Court challenged the hearing of the second appeals filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by the State Information Commission (SIC), headed by a non-judicial member.
On September 13, the Supreme Court had ruled in the Namit Sharma case that the Information Commission should be headed by a judicial member and should hear the case as a two member bench one of which should be a judicial member. Order at - http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/NamitSharma-v-UnionfoIndia-SCI-Sep12.pdf . The petitioner filed a representation with the state government seeking implementation of the Supreme Court order. On not getting a replying a response, he filed a petition in the Kerala HC. Currently, the Kerala SIC is headed by Sibi Mathews, an IPS officer and former Director General of Police. It had called off hearings subsequent to the apex court's order, but the functioning was resumed following an opinion by the state government's legal department.