The Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench recently issued notice to the Maharashtra Government and Nagpur Police on a writ petition filed by a man against whom summons were issued by the city traffic police after he filed an RTI query related to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) reported Livelaw.
A division bench of Justices Rohit B Deo and Y G Khobragade passed the order while hearing the plea filed by one Lalan Kishore Singh (61). The petition prayed for a quashing of the notice issued to him on December 26, 2021, by the assistant police Inspector (API), Traffic. He has also sought an interim stay on the effect and implementation of the notice till his petition is decided.
Singh claimed he learned from newspapers that the government was providing security to the Nagpur-based RSS office, which he said was an “unregistered NGO”. Singh said, that on June 30, 2021, he filed an RTI application seeking information from the state home department that on what basis was security being provided to the RSS office and how much was being spent on it given this fact. The RTI request was then forwarded to the state’s intelligence department and later to the Nagpur Police, he claims.
After this episode, the deputy police commissioner of Nagpur (Special Branch), told him it is exempt from the RTI Act therefore information cannot be provided. Meanwhile on December 26, 2021, the API (Traffic), MIDC in Nagpur city, served him a with notice for inquiry.
“If security is being provided to NGO from the revenue collected from the public… it is the constitutional right of every citizen to seek information and raise question,” he said in the plea claiming to be a daily wager. The Nagpur police was pressurising him to appear before it, which in turn was affecting his work, he claimed.
He has said that the API (Traffic) is not a competent authority to conduct any inquiry against him and it was being done to curb his fundamental rights. While Singh had intended to approach the High Court in March, last year, technical issues prevented him from doing so, he said. Therefore, he finally managed to file the petition only in December, 2022. The High Court will hear the plea next on January 24.