The pandemic has reportedly not impacted the disposal of cases filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act much. In fact, the disposal of cases has gathered pace online with the Tamil Nadu Information Commission passing orders by making enquiries with petitioners/Public Information Officers (PIOs) over the phone.
Initially, the COVID-19 outbreak did pull down the number of judgments to an all-time low of just one case in April. However, the TNIC quickly migrated to an online system, where the Chief/State Information Commissioners conducted enquiries on appeals over the phone with petitioners and PIOs, and wrote judgments. From a single digit in April, the number of judgments/orders passed steadily rose to 934 in July.
Lack of public transport
“Petitioners or PIOs could not travel since there was no public transport during the lockdown. The commission decided that the pandemic should not slow down the process of disposing cases and quickly moved online. We fix the time with both parties and conduct enquiries over the phone. Since there is no need for the petitioner or PIO to travel to Chennai, it saves a lot of their time and travel cost,” a senior official in the TNIC told The Hindu.
Online enquiries are being held on all working days and the TNIC, in its orders, provides a mobile number for WhatsApp communication for petitioners/PIOs to update the status of compliance. However, going by the orders passed in the last three months, it appears that the TNIC is not dealing with appeals related to the police and the Health Department, where a majority of the employees are at the forefront in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic in the State.
“Under normal circumstances, if a PIO based in southern districts such as Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Kanniyakumari, Theni and Thoothukudi has to appear for a hearing, it takes two days’ travel by train, either way, to reach the headquarters to appear for enquiry. This involves cost of travel and accommodation, in the form of travelling allowance, dearness allowance, etc. Similarly, the petitioner also has to incur cost, at his own expense, and appear for the hearing. Now, the process has been simplified… Besides the cost of travel and stay, considerable time is also saved for both parties,” the official said.
