The High Court (HC) has ordered to set up an information centre following the obligations of the Right to Information Act-2009(RTI) at the Supreme Court(SC) within 60 days.
A two-member HC bench comprising Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Mia and Justice Khijir Hayat pronounced the verdict after hearing a writ petition.
The writ petition was filed by Advocate Shishir Monir on May 26. Shishir conducted the hearing himself while Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar stood for the state.
Replying to questions after the pronouncement of the verdict, Shishir said that instructions have been given to the Registrar General of the SC along with Registrars of both the Appellate and the HC divisions to set up the information centre.
According to the writ petition, the Right to Information Act-2009 directs to establish information cells and recruit Information Officers(IO) in all the constitutional institutions of the country, including the government and the autonomous bodies.
The writ petition also says that free flow of information is peoples’ constitutional right according to section 39 of the constitution. People are deprived of this right due to the absence of information cells and information officers at public offices.
“The plaintiff had requested the Registrar of the HC for providing information regarding capital punishment. The plaintiff didn’t get any response from him. Later, he submitted a request to the Registrar General of the SC to implement the RTI-2009 Act. The plaintiff finally had to file a writ petition after not receiving any response from the SC official either,” adds the writ petition.
