PANAJI

The Goa State Information Commission (GIC) today summoned the Secretary to the Governor of Goa for non-compliance of the Right to Information Act.

Shanti Makwana Harding, the Under Secretary cum Registrar of the Commission, issued the summons in connection with a petition filed by Adv. Aires Rodrigues, directing the Raj Bhavan official to appear before the Commission on June 13.

Rodrigues in his petition, filed before the Information Commission, stated that as the Goa Raj Bhavan is covered under the definition of public authority, the failure by the office to appoint a public information officer was “illegal, very high-handed, malafide and without reasonable cause”.

 “Unlike other Raj Bhavans and even the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Goa Raj Bhavan had failed to come under the ambit of the Right to Information Act,” the petition read.

“The Goa Raj Bhavan has allowed it to be weakened and that it was imperative that this cover of secrecy be removed so that there could be public scrutiny into the affairs and its working,” Ad. Aires Rodrigues said.