Nagpur University's provice chancellor GS Parasher and acting registrar Debendranath Mishra have been summoned by the state information commission on Friday. According to secretary of Civil Human Rights Protection Association Prakash Bansod, the SIC bench had heard six appeals by him on February 18.
These appeals were in regard to the inability of the university to follow the proper course of law on his queries relating to examination work under RTI Act. The commission then directed the university to give a hearing to the appellant. The pro-VC, as the first appellate officer, directly gave a ruling on the appeals without giving Bansod a hearing.
This was against the principles of natural justice and did not provide the appellant a chance to present his side. Bansod also claimed that he had also written to Parasher asking for a hearing but he had deliberately ignored it for days. As a consequence, in a letter dated March 22, the appellant brought it to the notice of the commission which took a serious cognizance and served a show-cause notice on May 13.
This is not the first case when the university top officials are facing flak for their non-cooperation on the judicial matters. Earlier, they had been blasted and warned by the chancellor's office as they failed to respond to as many as nine letters related to a single issue. Bansod said the manner in which the university dealt with this issue displayed the scant regard that the university held for the transparency law.
“The inaction of the university is forcing the people to appeal to higher authorities for information that they should easily get here if the university cooperates. Let us hope the university takes a note of the case and makes an attempt to improve its practices,” he added.
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