Advocate Mahesh Sonak who is appearing for Raj Bhavan was directed by the division bench of Bombay High Court at Goa, comprising of Justice S A Bobde and FM Reis, to advice and instruct the Public Information Officer (PIO) to not to deny information to other applications under the Right to Information Act on the reason that a matter was pending in the High Court.

Adv. Aires Rodrigues directed the attention of the High Court stating that the RTI Act continues to be violated by the constitutional head of the state as all the applicants are denied of the information with a standared reply that the matter was pending in the High Court.

It was stated by the High Court that the petition filed by Raj Bhavan against the RTI and the petition filed by Goa Governor in 2008 against giving information to Manohar Parrikar, the former Chief Minister, be heard and disposed on 15^th of this month.

The petition that is presently filed by N Radhakrishnan, Goa Governor S S Sidhu’s special secretary, challenges the March 31 order of the Goa State Information Commission, which had directed Raj Bhavan to furnish Rodrigues information sought by him under the RTI Act.

In the order made by State Chief Information Commissioner Motilal Keny, he had ruled that the Governor was a ‘Public authority’ and hence does not come within the ambit of the RTI Act. The complaint made by Rodrigues against the Goa Governor follows the same stand taken by Raj Bhavan that the Governor was not a public authority and does not come within the purview of the Act.

Rodrigues has sought the details of action taken on the complaints made by him to the Governor of Goa against the Advocate General of Goa. Mr. Subodh Kantak, from Goa Raj Bhavan.

Report by Sharika