Madurai district police provides information that the city police declined
13 Jan, 2013Two applications were filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act – one with the office of the Madurai Superintendent of Police and another with the office of the Commissioner of Police, Madurai city. The applicant sought to know the number of accused in criminal cases identified since 2009, the number of them arrested, those detained under the Goondas Act and the number of charge sheets filed during this period.
The reply received from the two was different and indicates the contrast between the attitudes of the two wings of the same department towards handling of RTI applications. The reply from Madurai district police provided all the information that were demanded by the applicant while the reply from the Madurai city police stated that the sought information cannot be provided as it falls under section 8 of RTI Act making it exempt from public disclosure.
It also shows that the departments need to be sensitised towards proper and unifrm handling of the RTI applications.