After a hectic 3 days, the writ petition has been filed today against TN SIC's order not allowing disclosure of IAS assests. It might come up for admission by Saturday. Of course the first step is that it will be admitted and the respondents will be sent notices, so there is not much to expect on saturday. It is just a formality. The case will most probably be taken up for detailed hearing only in Jan, since the respondents have to be given time to submit their response. Moreover, the high court is on leave from 23rd to New year. So things will start moving only in Jan. Similarly the case filed by the DVAC against the SIC's order ordering disclosure of information will also come up for hearing only in January. I have engaged the same advocate Mr.Krishnananth, who helped me with the MLA assets PIL for both of these. He is doing it purely for its public interest value. He does not depend on his practice for his income. So he refused to take any money, but after insistence my side, has asked me to just give him whatever I feel like.
The Secretary of P&AR department, had given an appointment for a meeting with him on Monday, in response to a request I gave a month back. The meeting was not entirely fruitful, in the sense that he was obviously unahppy with the SIC giving strongly worded orders against the government (he particularly referred to an order in my case, where I had complained that the implementation of RTI act in the P&AR dept itself was shabby). Also for any request that we make, he says he will consider it and that he will need the consent of the Chief Secretary. The present CS is not the person who will do anything good for RTI (If you recall, I had mentioned earlier that he was the commissioner of DVAC who pushed for the DVAC exemption from RTI). But there was one good news that came out of the meeting. It seems the CS wil retire in a month's time. That gives me some hope. Once the new CS comes in, we will see if anything positive can be expected from the government.
The Secretary of P&AR department, had given an appointment for a meeting with him on Monday, in response to a request I gave a month back. The meeting was not entirely fruitful, in the sense that he was obviously unahppy with the SIC giving strongly worded orders against the government (he particularly referred to an order in my case, where I had complained that the implementation of RTI act in the P&AR dept itself was shabby). Also for any request that we make, he says he will consider it and that he will need the consent of the Chief Secretary. The present CS is not the person who will do anything good for RTI (If you recall, I had mentioned earlier that he was the commissioner of DVAC who pushed for the DVAC exemption from RTI). But there was one good news that came out of the meeting. It seems the CS wil retire in a month's time. That gives me some hope. Once the new CS comes in, we will see if anything positive can be expected from the government.
