The
Calcutta Court dismisses NRI doctor's petition for
access to Government records under RTI
Dr. Saha need documents
in the course of their investigation into a complaint
against three senior Kolkata doctors.
Calcutta, April 05, 2007
Ramesh Sharma
The Calcutta High Court dismissed a plea under the
Right to Information (RTI) Act filed by US-based Kunal
Saha. The reason for this refusal is because he is
a NRI. RTI law was passed by Parliament on 15 June
2005 and came into force on 13 October 2005. Information
disclosure in India was hitherto restricted by the
Official Secrets Act 1923 and various other special
laws, which the new RTI Act now overrides.
Justice Dipankar Datta dismissed Saha's writ petition
against the West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) and
their president Ashok Chowdhury seeking documents
that the council was said to have obtained in the
course of their investigation into a complaint against
three senior Kolkata doctors.
The Right to Information Act 2005 (Act
No. 22/2005)[1] is a law enacted by the Parliament
of India giving citizens of India (except those in
the State of Jammu and Kashmir who have their own
special law) access to Government records. Under the
terms of the Act, any person may request information
from a "public authority" (a body of Government
or instrumentality of State) which is required to
reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act
also requires every public authority to computerise
their records for wide dissemination and to proactively
publish certain categories of information so that
the citizens need minimum recourse to request for
information formally.
Last week, the Supreme Court have admitted a Rs.1.43
billion compensation claim by Dr. Kunal whose wife
died due to allegedly wrong treatment during a visit
to Kolkata in May 1998. NRI, Dr. Saha filed three
cases against five doctors- Sukumar Muherjee, Baidyanath
Halder, Abani Roychowdhury, Balaram Prasad and Kausik
Nandy.
