Prasoon Shekhar v. The State Of Bihar

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA

Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.9378 of 2020 ====================================================== Prasoon Shekhar S/O Sri Uday Pratap Singh Resident of Mohalla- Saheed Ram Govind Singh Path, West Jai Prakash Nagar, P.S.- Jakkanpur, DistrictPatna. ... ... Petitioner/s

Versus

1.

The State of Bihar through The Chief Secretary, Govt. of Bihar, Old Secretariat, Patna.

2.

The Principal Secretary, General Administrative Department, Govt. Of Bihar, Old Secretariat, Patna.

3.

The Principle Secretary, Dept. of Finance, Govt. of Bihar, Old Secretariat, Patna.

4.

The Chief State Information Commissioner, Govt. of Bihar, Patna. ... ... Respondent/s ====================================================== Appearance :

For the Petitioner/s :

Mr.Sanjeev Kumar, Adv For the Respondent/s :

Mr. P.K. Verma AAG-3 & Ms. Divya Verma AC to AAG-3.

====================================================== (The proceedings of the Court are being conducted through Video Conferencing and the Advocates joined the proceedings through Video Conferencing from their residence.) CORAM: HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE and HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE S. KUMAR ORAL JUDGMENT (Per: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE S. KUMAR) Date : 16-12-2020 Heard learned counsel for the parties.

Petitioner has prayed for the following relief(s):- "(i) To make suitable changes in the Bihar RTI online Portal "JAANKARI' so far as to make provisions for exemption of fees/charges from the persons belonging to BPL category in the said portal in the light of the provisions contained in Section 7(5) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 read with Bihar Right to Information Rules, 2006 Section 3(2)(ii).

(ii) Not giving of option of exemption of

Patna High Court CWJC No.9378 of 2020 dt.16-12-2020 2/3 fees/charges in respect of persons belonging to BPL category in the aforesaid portal amounts to coercing people belonging to those category to pay the charges which is violative of Section 7(5) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 read with Bihar Right to Information Rules, 2006 Section 3(2)(ii).

(iii)To accept the prescribed fee for filing online RTI application through Rupay & 'Online Banking', apart from other modes of payment of fee."

After the matter was heard for sometime, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner shall be content if a direction is issued to the respondent no. 1 Chief Secretary, Govt. of Bihar, Patna, to consider and decide the representation with respect to grievances raised in such representation. Learned counsel for the respondent states that if such representation is filed before the respondent no. 1 Chief Secretary, Govt. of Bihar, Patna, same shall be considered and decided within a period of two months from the date of receipt of such representation in accordance with law. Equally liberty is reserved to the petitioner to take recourse to such alternative remedies as are otherwise available in accordance with law.

Liberty reserved to petitioner to approach the court, if the need so arises subsequently on the same and subsequent cause of action.

Patna High Court CWJC No.9378 of 2020 dt.16-12-2020 3/3 The writ petition is accordingly, disposed of. (Sanjay Karol, CJ) ( S. Kumar, J) ranjan/- AFR/NAFR NAFR CAV DATE NA Uploading Date Transmission Date NA