- Pending cases at magistrate courts in Mumbai:
In 75 magistrate courts in Mumbai as on 01-04- 2013, pending cases as per reply received to the query made under RTI are 3.82 lakh. As on 31- 07-2013 number is 3.72 lakh. When classified it reveals that 8464 cases are pending for more than 20 years, 51074 pending more than 10 years and 67721 are pending since more than 5 years. Highest number of cases, (11953), are in 26th court, Borivali and lowest, (102) in 19th court, Esplanade.
- Relief to sexual crime victims
Gopal Kansara has proved that RTI is potent weapon in the hands of humble citizens.
Acting on the 2011 Supreme Court directive to States to formulate a plan to provide relief and rehabilitate women who had been assaulted or raped, Kansara has used RTI to make sure the verdict is implemented. In the process, he has brought succor to a minor rape victim in his locality, a woman publicly molested in Guwahati and several trafficked children in Delhi.
“On January 2 this year, newspapers reported that a minor girl had been raped by a driver nearby. I wrote to the district collector seeking monetary relief for her,” said Kansara. As he got no response to his letter or fax, Kansara filed an RTI in February asking for a copy of the FIR, the medical report, action taken report and details of rehabilitation.
“After the RTI application, the collector wrote to the local authorities and Rajasthan chief minister. Soon Rs. 3 lakh was sanctioned for the girl and deposited in a bank,” he said.
He did something similar in the case of the public molestation of a 20-year-old girl outside a Guwahati pub by over a dozen men in mid-2012. “I did not know her, nor have I ever been to Assam. But I strongly felt I should do something. I filed an RTI application with the Assam government asking what relief had been given to her [as per the SC order]. Soon she was given Rs. 50,000 by the state government,” he added.
Since 2006, Kansara has filed more than 750 RTI applications on a range of issues and says he will continue to do so even though he has been threatened with murder several times. “The RTI has done what no other law in the country has done. It has made the common man a VIP. It has freed him from approaching local politicians every time for little things.”
- Refund of Security Deposit etc. by Kelkar College:
RTI activists, Ranjit Mahanti in reply to his RTI application to Kelkar College, Mulund was informed that data he had sought would require much work and asked him if the activist will pay for the expense involved in compiling information sought. Mr Mahanti had sought information from the college about the practice in refunding security deposit taken from its students. College replied:
“We wish to inform you that information required by you about security deposits is extremely large work. It may require one year’s time. It is not possible for us to complete this during our routine work, for which we have to appoint two additional employees on contract basis. Kindly let us know whether you are ready to pay for the expenditure towards this work for information required by you.”
In this connection it is worth noting the judgment of S.C. in the case of Institute of Chartered Accountants vs. Shaunak H. Satya reported in A.I.R. 2011 S.C. 3336, [RTIR IV (2011) 82 (SC)]
“One of the objects of democracy is to bring about transparency of information to contain corruption and bring about accountability. But achieving this object does not mean that other equally important public interests including efficient functioning of the Government and public authorities, optimum use of limited fiscal resources, preservation of confidentiality of sensitive information, etc. are to be ignored or sacrificed.“
