Plea seeks online RTI portal for Supreme Court, says it is public authority under RTI Act

A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court by law students praying that an online Right To Information (RTI) portal should be set up for the apex court since it is a public authority under the RTI law [Akriti Agarwal & Anr v. Supreme Court]..Currently, RTI applications with respect to Supreme Court have to filed physically through post office. The petition pointed out that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the country was constrained when it came to physical movement and access to post offices for filing of RTI applications was also affected.According to the plea, the cause of action arose when there was no action on the representations made on three occasions to the authorities concerned..“This is acting as a serious hurdle in accessing information and access to justice and leads to violation of fundamental rights of the citizens, guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) & Article 21 respectively of the Constitution of India,” it contended..Therefore, the students argued that the respondents, Supreme Court of India, the E-Committee being the governing body charged with overseeing the E-Courts Project and the National Informatics Centre being responsible for assisting public authorities over digitisation of citizen-centric services, hold a joint responsibility towards citizens to make justice dispensation system cost effective and easily accessible. However, an online RTI portal facility for the Supreme Court has not been created till date, it was submitted..The petitioners relied on the decision in Pravasi Legal Cell v. Union Of India & Ors in which the Supreme Court had issued notice to the State governments to file their response in reference to setting up of online RTI portals in their respective States..As a result, the plea underlined that the E-Committee is under a legal obligation to provide such a portal for the Supreme Court too to protect the citizens fundamental “Right to Know and Access to Justice” under Article 19(1)(a) and Article 21 of the Indian Constitution..It was further contended that the portal would also assist in avoiding the impact on the environment by bringing down the paper usage considerably.The petition also emphasised on the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana's address this year where he was quoted as saying, “The common man should not feel scared of judges and courts. Courts should be comforting. The focus point of any legal system is the litigant. Courts should be transparent and accountable in nature.”.Further, it also referred to the Justice DY Chandrachud's “letters to Chief Justices of all High Court in December, 2020 to make the justice delivery system accessible, cost-effective, reliable and transparent”..The plea, consequently, prayed for directions for setting up of an RTI portal for e-filing of RTI applications and first appeals in the Supreme Court of India “in a time bound manner”..Our legal system is colonial, not suited for Indian population: CJI NV Ramana