RTI activist arrested for refusing to stand for appeal hearing

Chennai: An RTI activist was arrested by police from the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission premises after he strongly protested against him being disallowed from sitting down during hearing of his case.

Siva Elango, state president of Satta Panchayat Iyakkam, was seeking to know which rule mandated him to stand up when his case was being heard before he was picked up by police yesterday on charges of preventing a public servant from serving his duties and criminal intimidation. His outfit runs a campaign against alleged corruption in government machinery.

Elango came to attend the proceedings of the Information Commission with his colleague after he was called for a hearing on his appeal. He had sought to know through an RTI application why the state government was giving advertisements to only select newspapers.

When his case came up for hearing, the petitioners were asked by the two-member bench to stand up, his colleague and state secretary of the organisation Jaiganesh, who was present at the time, told PTI on Thursday.

When they were asked to stand up again, an agitated Elango refused and asked which rule mandated the petitioners to stand up and claimed that a guideline given by the Chief Information Commission directed state information commissions not to follow the court procedure.

Meanwhile, the respondents said they had replied to the RTI application on time, which was contested by Elango.

“We were told to stand up for hearing or else our case would not be heard. They had called for the next case in the cause list. Elango asked me to leave the hall and said he would manage this. He remained seated wanting to know which rule mandated him to stand up while hearing is on,” Jaiganesh said.

On a complaint by Information Commission’s Registrar Ashok Kumar, the Teynampet Police arrived at the spot and arrested Elango, produced him in a court in Saidapet, which remanded him to 15 days judicial custody. Elango remained seated till the police picked him up, Jaiganesh said.

Police had arrested Elango under sections 294 b (obscenity), 353 (preventing a government from serving his duty) and 506 (1) criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

Elango’s colleagues at Satta Panchayat Iyakkam are planning to stage a sit-in in the Information Commission premises at 2.30 pm tomorrow, Jaiganesh said.

State Information Commission premises should have CCTV and audio recording so that there is transparency in hearing of cases, Jaiganesh said. The Information Commission officials said Information Commissioner Sripathi could not be reached for comment as he was hearing cases.

Elango along with fellow activists had earlier protested in front of the Raj Bhavan here against the appointment of Sripathi as State Information Commissioner alleging corruption charges against him.

PTI