Synopsis: A PIL petition has urged that information relating to the Gujarat Legislative Assembly proceedings be updated on its website on a regular basis.
On Monday, the Gujarat High Court issued a notice to the Legislative Assembly of Gujarat seeking its response to a petition for public interest litigation seeking that information on the proceedings in the Legislative Assembly of the State be regularly updated on its website.
A notice was issued to the Legislative Assembly by the Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Ilesh Vora seeking its response to the issues raised in the writ petition.
The petitioner, Neeta Dattataraya Hardikar, describing herself as a public-spirited citizen, approached the High Court praying for the Legislative Assembly to upload certain documents in terms of the Right to Information Act, 2005 on the assembly’s website.
The petition urged that the following to be revealed to the public:
a) Live telecasts of the proceedings of the Assembly, telecasts of previous proceedings and transcripts, important papers to be finalised, business of a private member, zero hours, list of questions and answers, text of debates;
b) The text of legislation, including subordinate rules;
c) Information on the Assembly Committees and a summary of their work and reports formulated by them;
d) Rules, regulations, guidelines, manuals and records;
e) Copy of documents kept or regulated by it.
Emphasizing that, according to the provisions of the RTI Act, these documents should be revealed in the public interest, the petitioner sought the disclosure of as many documents as were in the possession of the State Assembly pending the disposal of the case.
It was been further argued that the Assembly could claim legislative privilege if any of the documents could not be disclosed in the public interest.
By February 17, 2021, the court ordered the Assembly to respond.