Goa Governor Summoned by Goa Information Commission

In a first of its kind incident, the Goa Information Commission on 22 December 2010 summoned Goa Governor Dr S S Sidhu for claiming that the Right to Information Act did not apply to his office. The Commission holds the Governor guilty of trying to escape accountability under RTI by claiming his office wasn’t a public authority as defined in the transparency law. The RTI Act states that all government offices, including Rashtrapati Bhavan, PMO and Supreme Court are public authorities. The only organizations exempted are intelligence agencies and paramilitary forces specified in a schedule attached to RTI Act. The governor was asked to personally appear before the state chief information commissioner at 10.30am on 4 January 2011. The governor was summoned after governor’s office blocked information sought by social activist Aires Rodrigues on a case related to advocate general Subodh Kantak.