Dear Friends,
Here I am going to present a case which I am sure you would not even have dreamt of. This relates to Sri Pawan Agarwal, resident of Jilal Street, Mandi Chauk, Moradabad and an RTI activist. Sri Agarwal has been an active and fearless RTI activist whose exposures of the State’s functioning at the district and Headquarters level has earned him the wrath of many of government functionaries and he has also been sent to jail in supposedly forged and framed criminal cases. But as per the letter sent by him to the National RTI Forum the worst is what happened to him on31/05/2010 and 01/06/2010. As per his letter, he had presented a complaint No S1-16C/2009 in Court No-1 belonging to the Chief Information Commissioner of the Uttar Pradesh State Information Commission in which he appeared on 31/05/2010. In this case as per Sri Agarwal’s version when his turn came, Sri Ranjit Singh Pankaj, who is the CIC of Uttar Pradesh, took out a paper from his pocket in a planned manner and put it before Sri Agarwal. Among other points, one thing that was written there was-“I do not want this information anymore. I am taking back my application.” This is something that one can’t even think of. This certainly is the limit of irresponsible behavior amounting to criminal misconduct. That too by the State Chief Information Commissioner. When Sri Agarwal refused to sign the paper, he says that he was badly threatened in open court and the CIC eventually got the paper signed with the help of the security guards present there. Sri Anil Bishnoi, an advocate and resident of Chamber No- 140, In front of Ward Commissioner , Kachari, Moradabad was presumably also present with him. As per Sri Pawan, unfortunately the same thing again happened in complaint No S1-750C/2009 in the same court the very next day. This time another RTI activist Sri Salim Beg, again from Moradabad and a very active member of our Forum was also present there in the Chamber and he testifies the events. The National RTI Forum not only condemns this behavior as being of a very serious nature. We have also written to the Governor of Uttar Pradesh to get an enquiry done in this matter take suitable action against the CIC under section 17 (1) and 17(2) of the RTI Act if the facts are found true.. Dr Nutan Thakur, Convenor, National RTI Forum, Lucknow # 94155-34525
