Kerala SIC orders inspection of documents by Vijitha
30 Apr, 2015
V V Vijitha had filed 35 RTI applications to the Pallichkal village panchayat office (district Thiruvananthapuram) in a year most of which related to stone quarry units and exhaust of panchayat fund. Irritated over the series of applications, the panchayat passed a resolution against her declaring Vijitha a “public nuisance” and asked the State Information Commission (SIC) of Kerala to declare her a “public nuisance” statewide.
The panchayat’s resolution was subsequently cancelled by the Principal Secretary to the Local Self Government Institutions who also directed the Secretary of the Pallichal panchayat to submit an explanation. There is no provision to declare a person as public nuisance under the RTI Act.
The full bench of SIC Kerala has dismissed the petition of Pallichal panchayat that sought rejecting the application of Vijitha to peruse the documents in person. Hearing the plea of panchayat secretary which sough dismissal of request of Vijitha for inspection of the documents, the full bench of SIC observed that as per the Right to Information (RTI) Act, every citizen had the right to obtain information.