Team Herald
PANJIM: Secretary to Goa Governor, Mihir Vardhan who is the First Appellate Authority under the Right to Information (RTI) Act will on December 2 hear the appeal filed by Adv Aires Rodrigues over the reply received from the Raj Bhavan Joint Secretary to Governor and Public Information Officer (PIO) Gaurish Shankhwalkar that the letters written by former Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik to Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister were not available.
Adv Rodrigues in his appeal has submitted that while failing to furnish the information sought the PIO has high-handedly taken shelter under unacceptable reasons in rank contravention of the RTI Act.
Alleging that the PIO has denied information with erroneous, frivolous, unwarranted and malafide intentions while acting as a caged parrot of the powers to be, Adv Rodrigues has submitted that the action of the PIO to deny information was illegal, untenable and with suspect motives.
Pointing out that the information sought by him very much exists at the Goa Raj Bhavan, Adv Rodrigues has in his appeal further submitted that if the letters sought by him were in fact searched for and could not be found the PIO was duty bound to seek the assistance of the former Governor Satya Pal Malik.
In his application under the Right to Information Act, Adv Rodrigues had sought from Raj Bhavan copies of all the official letters written by Governor Malik to Prime Minister and Home Minister during his tenure from November 3, 2019 to August 18, 2020.
