Should Not Judges Know Law ?

Should Not Judges Know Law ?

SIC skips query on ‘RTI Training’ for Commissioners

JAMMU, 05/APRIL/2013: Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission has skipped a direct reply on a query where a citizen has asked the Public Information Officer, PIO of the Commission about the Training sessions on RTI Act that are attended or gone through by the State Chief Information Commissioner and other Information Commissioners.
Information seeker Shakti Sharma in assistance and guidance of RTI Activist Deepak Sharma, in his RTI application dated 21/01/2013 along with other queries asked the PIO of the commission to divulge the information regarding the RTI Training Programs attended/undergone by the Information Commissioners but to utter surprise instead of providing the asked information in the format it is asked, the PIO vide his office letter no. SIC/PIO/CO/05/2013/158-59 informed the applicant“The Act does not cast any such obligation on these statutory authorities”. The activist Deepak Sharma expressed displeasure over the reply of the officer of the Commission and has termed it as ‘very unfortunate and serious’. Deepak said, The State Information Commission is not only competent authority but also duty bound to promote and enforce the practical regime of Right to Information and bring transparency and accountability in the working of every Public Authority, therefore the officers of the commission themselves should also respect the law and rights of the citizens which are being provided by the constitution. People have the right to know whether Honorable Commissioners have undergone the basic RTI training or not. If the reply of the Public Information officer is true that in the act there is no obligation for the RTI-Judges to undergo training then we would urge the State Government to amend the law and make it mandatory that the Judges who have been appointed to deliver judgments and provide justice to the information seekers under RTI Act , should have attended or gone through of RTI Act related trainings or at least should be mandatory for those judges who have no background of law , the activist emphasized. It is pertinent to mention here that at present there are 3 Judges in the State Information Commission including Chief Information Commissioner, GR Sufi who was an Income Tax Officer, IC Nazir Ahmed who comes from an engineering background and only IC Dr. SK Sharma have a law background as he was head of the law department of Jammu University.
published in JK Newspoint, MoneyLife and other newspapers.