RTI Act perfect tool for justice to needy

By Shariff Ameeruddin Ishaqui
Hyderabad, June 3: The Right to Information (RTI) Act has emerged as aperfect tool for the needy to seek justice.
The government has been under fire as citizens are using the RTI to nail officials in court. In a majority of cases the government is coming under sharp criticism from judges of the AP High Court.
The RTI has been enabling the petitioners to get the relevant records from the government to prove their cases.The High Court has pulled up several officials in several cases as most of the petitioners and their counsels have exposed chinks in the administration by submitting the documents which they obtained through RTI Act.
Several government departments including revenue, panchayat raj and rural development, general administration and others have faced the wrath of the court when the court pointed out the lapses and misinformation submitted through the counter affidavits.
In many a case, the counter affidavits filed by the departments concerned are grossly exposing the lackadaisical attitude of the officials as the petitioners are able to successfully present relevant documents in more detail than those submitted by the authorities along with the counter affidavits.
Using the RTI as a potent weapon, common petitioners are tactfully extracting all required information from the departments concerned to make their case fool proof and proving to be oneup on the inert officials, who areclearly being caught off guard.
In a recent case, a petitioner successfully proved before the court that officials of the Panchayat Raj department have failed in conducting a joint inspection to asses potentiality of ground water in their village in Krishnadistrict.
The Panchayat Raj officials told the court that the joint inspection was already over, whereas the petitioner submitted a letter issued by the ground water department that there was no inspection so far in thevillage.
Similarly, in another case the revenue department was also caught in the court by providing false information to the court and the judge warned the officials that a contempt proceedings has been initiated against the officials if they dare to commit such mistake in future.
The judge observed that the official said not even perusing the records before furnishing information to thecourt.
"It seems that they have been depending on outsourcing on preparingof counter affidavits".After observing these kind of mistakes often committed by the government servants most of the judges alsosuggesting the petitioners to obtain the information through the RTI. In some the cases the court itself directed the departments concerned to provide information to the petitioner underthe Act.
Senior bureaucrat Shafiquzzaman succeeded to the get the information of corrupt officials under the Act through the court.
Mr P Subhash, a practising advocate of the High Court said "earlier we has to depend on the mercy of the concerned officials to get the relevant documents to prove the case. Most of the time we could not able to get all the material as the officials refuses to provide the records. Thanks toRTI, now we are not only able to get thedocuments it facilitated us even to project the malpractice done by the officials".
Mr Venkat Rajaram, a senior advocate said "after the introduction of the Act we are suggesting our clients to get the relevant documents through the act before filing the case in the court. This is helping our clients to get favourable orders in early".