RTI Commission summons Goa Governor Sidhu

Raj Bhavan denied info sought under law

The commission said the governor would have to appear before it in person for the hearing on Janaury 4. The governor’s special secretary N Radhakrishnan has also been directed to be present.

This is perhaps the first time that a governor of a state has been asked to face an information commission since the constitution of the Right to Information Act in 2005.

Activist lawyer Aires Rodrigues had filed a petition before the commission after Raj Bhavan sent him a letter, saying the governor’s office was beyond the jurisdiction of the Right to Information law.

The lawyer challenged this, arguing that as a constitutional post, the governor was very much a “public authority” under section 2 (h) (a) of the Right to Information Act.  
“As the governor has been notified as a public authority, he is bound to furnish the information sought under the Right to Information, and in refusing to do so his actions are unreasonable and malafide,” the lawyer said.

The lawyer, who is counsel in several public interest cases before courts including one against the state’s Advocate General Subodh Kantak, had sought details of action taken on a complaint made to the governor’s office.