Dear friends,
As you are aware, Acting Chief SIC Vijay Kuvalekar is organizing a "Mass Disposal Mela" at Podar Ayurvedic College, Worli, Mumbai on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. He intends to dispose off 600 pending cases filed between 2008 and 2011. For explaining how this procedure works, Mr Kuvalekar called a meeting of media and activists in Mumbai on Friday, 30th December.
Before the meeting, when we did not know the details of the procedure, I was worried. Now, after a frank and friendly meeting with the commissioner, during which he distributed some information and answered queries, I am even more worried.
Many of my fellow activists feel that we should "wait and watch", and "give him a chance to do something good for Maharashtra". Given the alarming pendency of over 20,000 cases in Maharashtra, I too would want the proceedings to be a grand success. Like my colleagues, I shall go to observe the proceedings with an open mind tomorrow and the day-after.
Nevertheless, I am sharing my worry with all of you. If it is wrong to do so, forgive me.
FIRST, LET ME PRESENT MR KUVALEKAR'S POINT OF VIEW. To explain and justify the need for this Mass Disposal Mela, he gave us this printed matter – almost all of it in Marathi:
1) Advocate General's legal opinion (English) and circulars (Marathi):
http://tinyurl.com/Mass-Disposal-Circulars-AG-Opn
2) Maharashtra SIC Case Disposal, Pendency & Vacancies (Marathi):
http://tinyurl.com/Maharashtra-SIC-Statistics
Mr Kuvalekar explained that in this mass disposal camp, about 600 RTI appellants, public information officers (PIOs) and first appellate authorities (FAAs) of various state public authorities will be brought face-to-face to sort out their differences. This was optional, he said. If any disputes were not resolved by this method, regular hearings would be held.
Mr Kuvalekar also gave us a specimen of the form that each set of appellants, PIOs and FAAs would have to fill up during the Mass Disposal Mela, and submit to the SIC staff:
3) SIC's MARATHI FORM to be filled up at Mass Disposal:
http://tinyurl.com/Mass-Disposal-form-MARATHI
4) For enabling non-Marathi-speakers, we translated this form into ENGLISH:http://tinyurl.com/Mass-Disposal-form-ENGLISH
Based on these filled-up forms (and unspecified papers that are submitted along with it), Mr Kuvalekar will summarily dispose off the appeals. He asserts that he has the power to do so, with or without another hearing.
Mr Kuvalekar also gave us a copy of the hearing notice that was sent to the appellantsonly last week by Speed Post.
5) HEARING NOTICE in Marathi: http://tinyurl.com/Hearing-Notice-MARATHI
NOW LET ME SHARE WITH YOU MY OPINION:
- This Mass Disposal Mela is given legitimacy by comparing it to "Lok Adalat" held by courts for clearing pending cases. It is also compared to arbitration and negotiation. Such comparisons are misleading. The main differences:
(i) Lok Adalats have someone officiating between the two parties. Arbitration and negotiation proceedings also have trained arbitrators/negotiators who bring the parties together on a common ground. But here, the two parties will be put face-to-face, and Mr Kuvlekar has made it clear that nobody else will participate in the proceedings – neither the staff of the SIC, nor the activists present.
(ii) Many RTI applications are filed because the applicants have other grievances. The role of Information Commissioners is to focus on getting information for applicants as per RTI Act, and not to allow the discussion to drift in the direction of grievance redressal. In this Mass Disposal Mela, the appellant, PIO and FAA, who will be unsupervised, are more likely to get into arguments about grievances rather than discuss the information requested.
(iii) Bullying and intimidation is likely to occur. Many civil society appellants are in awe of public servants -- especially those who are high-ranking, such as first appellate authorities. Most appellants who come alone will be outnumbered 2:1 by the PIO and FAA. If the PIO and FAA are accompanied by their other colleagues, then appellants may find themselves surrounded by a group, and may feel afraid. They may feel pressured to stop their RTI activities, and to withdraw their plea for information and for penalizing PIO.
- Notices of hearing have been dispatched very late – at the beginning of last week. Many appellants, PIOs and FAAs may receive the notices with insufficient time to make arrangements to attend, as all the three days are working days. The hearing notice has many problem areas. (See sentences underlined in red in http://tinyurl.com/Hearing-Notice-MARATHI )
(i) The Notice asks appellants to revert back to the SIC's office in case they cannot attend. As the notices may reach them even after the hearing, they may not be able to do that. In that case, will their cases be dismissed or disposed off ex-parte? Mr Kuvalekar asserts that he has the power to do that in any case – and not only in mass disposal proceedings.
(ii) The notice asks appellants to contact the old PIOs (who denied or delayed information) and old FAAs (who had heard them) to attend. In old cases, PIOs and FAAs currently in office may be unable to reply or justify on their behalf. However, the appellant does not have any authority to do this, and PIOs and FAAs may refuse to reschedule their present official commitments, given the last-minute notice. What will happen to the appellant's case then?
(iii) The notice asks PIOs to give written explanation for delays in furnishing information. This is contrary to RTI, where there is no scope for condoning delays beyond the time periods stipulated i.e. 30 days to maximum 45 days.
- The legal opinion given by Advocate General R M Kadam (seehttp://tinyurl.com/Mass-Disposal-Circulars-AG-Opn ) is at variance with the Supreme Court's recent judgment (http://tinyurl.com/SC-Judgment-on-RTIComplaint ). The Advocate General loosely opines that SIC has powers to organize such "Special Appeal Disposal Programmes". However, he does not go into the details of what constitutes a legally valid process. On the other hand, the Supreme Court has opined that SIC's powers to dispose of cases come strictly from Section 18 i.e. Complaint and Section 19(3) i.e. Second Appeal. Nowhere in Section 18 or 19 is Mr Kuvalekar's method of 'Mass Disposal' even remotely mentioned; from where is the SIC deriving these powers?
WHY ACTIVISTS ALL OVER INDIA SHOULD BE WORRIED:
a) Mr Kuvalekar sought the Advocate General's legal opinion only a few weeks ago. However, in 2008 and 2011, he has already disposed off over 1,800 cases in Pune by this method. This constitutes roughly 10% of all the complaints and appeals he has heard since his appointment in 2007. However, it is not recorded as to which cases were disposed off by this method.
b) This dangerous idea is getting popular with others SICs in the country, it seems. Mr Kuvalekar told the press that Chief SIC of Gujarat recently attended his Mass Disposal Mela in Pune, where he was disposing off about 120 cases per day. Haryana SIC Asha Sharma also attended as an observer. They would like to replicate Mr Kuvalekar's ingenious idea in their states… and that is alarming.
In the light of the above, I have a better idea of disposing off pending cases during this winter month, if RTI appellants will consider it. We should get together and make a bonfire of all the pending files in Azad Maidan. That way, we will stop having any false hopes, and it will save everybody's time and money.
The Advocate General says that there is nothing in the statute that prevents Mr Kuvalekar from conducting his "Special Appeal Disposal Programme". To that, I would like to add that nothing in the statute expressly prevents him from conducting a mass bonfire of case files either.
Mr Kuvalekar Sir, please consider this humble suggestion from a friendly activist.
Warm Regards,
Krish
98215 88114
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