The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday ordered the issue of notice to the State government on a PIL petition, which has complained about the failure of the government to shift the office of the State Information Commission’s Kalaburagi Bench to Kalaburagi from Bengaluru for the past four-and-a-half years.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice M.G.S. Kamal passed the order on a petition filed by Sudha Katwa, a city-based advocate.
Unfilled posts
The petitioner has also complained that the government has failed to fill up the post of Information Commissioner to the Commission’s Belagavi bench for the past 16 months.
It has been pointed out in the petition that the government has consistently failed to fulfil the object of creating benches of the Commission at Belagavi and Kalaburagi as the general public, aggrieved by non-providing of information under the Right to Information Act by the public authorities, were unable to knock on the doors of the Commission at their door step to file appeals.
The petitioner pointed out that the Information Commissioner for Kalaburagi Bench has been functioning from Bengaluru since the creation of the Bench in January 2019 due to non-availability of infrastructure for the Bench at Kalaburagi. This is forcing public to come to Bengaluru to file appeals despite the creation of a Bench at a place close to them.
Though the Belagavi Bench was functional at Belagavi till April 2022, the functions came to a standstill following the resignation of Information Commissioner in that month as the government failed to fill up this post, the petitioner has said, while pointing out that the process, initiated in July 2022 to appoint new Information Commissioner has not yet reached finality.
