Maha SIC won only one out of 84 cases challenging its order

Maharashtra State Information Commission (SIC) could win only one case out of 84 in which its orders were challenged in different courts of law in the past 10 years, according to an RTI query.
In rest of the 83 cases, the orders were either reversed or are still pending, the reply to a query filed by RTI activist Anil Galgali showed.
Out of the 84 cases, three cases were filed in the Supreme Court while 81 cases were filed in the High Court of Bombay and its different benches in Nagpur, Aurangabad and tribunals as well.
Galgali had filed the Right To Information (RTI) query with the SIC seeking information about the cases in which different agencies moved the court against its order.

Initially, the information was denied, stating that no such data was available with the SIC, prompting Galgali to file an appeal.
Subsequently, Galgali was informed that in the period of 10 years from 2006 to 2015, a total of 84 cases went to court, in which the SIC got success in just one case whereas in the other 83 cases, its order was overturned.

The highest number of cases in which the court was approached was in 2013 with 24 cases followed by 23 in 2014, 12 in 2012, 10 in 2010, 7 in 2015, 5 in 2011, and one each in 2006, 2008 and 2009. No cases reached the court in 2007, the reply showed.

One case involving Reliance Energy Limited is pending since 2011, which pertains to the order of the SIC to bring the company under the purview of the RTI Act.
According to the data, the agencies which have knocked the doors of the court against the SIC's orders are the government's Home department, Mumbai University, Reliance Energy, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Police department, and S D Corporation.
"The SIC does not take much interest in the court cases filed against it, due to which its success rate is less than 1 per cent," Galgali said.
The activist, in a letter addressed to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has demanded that to maintain the significance and to preserve the sanctity of the RTI Act 2005, the government should make arrangements of special Advocates to represent the SIC's side effectively.