Lucknow, February 15 Taking serious note of the issue relating to notices being served to the state Assembly Speaker and principal secretary by the St

[karira]

As reported by Express News Service on expressindia.com on 16 February 2008:
Assembly Speaker, principal secy not to appear before RTI commission

Assembly Speaker, principal secy not to appear before RTI commission


Lucknow, February 15 Taking serious note of the issue relating to notices being served to the state Assembly Speaker and principal secretary by the State Information Commission, the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Friday resolved that any such summon will be considered a violation of the privileges of the House and necessary action will follow. The resolution, moved by Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tewari, was adopted unanimously by the House.

During the last year, the Commission has issued several notices to the Speaker and principal secretary of the Assembly Secretariat summoning them to appear and reply to petitions filed before it.

Tewari said, “No action will be taken by the Assembly Secretariat on the notices so far issued by the State Information Commission to the Assembly Speaker, principal secretary, any other officer in the Assembly Secretariat, including the nodal officer under the RTI .”

The resolution also warned the Commission to refrain from issuing any more such notices to the Speaker and the principal secretary. “If any notice is sent in future to the Assembly by the Commission, then it will be treated as the contempt of the House. The matter will be placed before the privilege committee of the House for suitable action.”

Later, briefing mediapersons, Principal Secretary R P Pandey said Commission is issuing notices based on absurd questions. “One question sought information from the Speaker as to how legislators became millionaires overnight soon after they were elected to the Assembly. This was an absurd question and therefore, we ignored the notice. The person seeking this information filed a petition before the Commission and they issued notice summoning the Speaker,” he added.

In another instance, a person inquired from the Speaker “whether an MLA can bid for a government contract in his/her name. If yes, then the MLA is earning profit and whether he/she should be disqualified from the membership”. Pandey said the nodal officer under the RTI in Assembly Secretariat replied that the name and the number of MLAs taking government contracts under their name were not available with the Secretariat. The questioner then filed a petition in the Commission, which issued a notice to the Speaker.

Pandey further said, “The Commission was told that it was beyond their jurisdiction to summon the Assembly Speaker, but they continued to issue notices.”

[wagh7]

Dear Sir,

Whether a Seperate rule and law to be adopted for officers of Assembly and other officers.?

rakatkam.

[meteor]

Originally Posted by rakatkam

Dear Sir,

Whether a Seperate rule and law to be adopted for officers of Assembly and other officers.?

rakatkam.

Even if there is no separate rule, they will bend the rules to their favour!

[wagh7]

most misrable situation it is.

rakatkam.

[colnrkurup]

The Speaker of the House can defenitely claim the previleges. But the Principal Secretary and other Legislative staff are only public servants not entitled to any such previleges. I am sure that such orders will not sustain in a court of law. I wish someone approach the Court.

[slchowdhary]

I wish and pray that the Hon'ble speaker and the assembly will respect the law of land. Let us not go to court. We should solve the problem by public opinion and persuation.

[slchowdhary]

If any body can give an update ?

[colnrkurup]

I too feel anxiousto know the outcome. This is not as trivial as some of us tend to consider. A section of the bureaucracy, I mean public servants thriving on the remenueration paid from the hard earned money of WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA claiming that they won't abide by the Laws of this Country and Constitutional provisions of this land is little too much for me to digest. Since the media of our country is monopolised and decide the priority of affairs we have no means to protest against such decisions or participate in such decisions.

[slchowdhary]

Thanks Colonel. I too feel that our media also need to be brought under some law like RTI where it can be held accountable. It may blow some little thing out of proportion but at other times it puts an imp matter in small fonts inside pages.