The Section makes it mandatory for an applicant seeking information under the Act to enclose a Rs 10 court fee stamp along with his application. Complaining that the stamp is not easily available in the market, Sudip Mukherjee, a member of RITES, an NGO, had filed a petition in the court earlier this year. “The general public faces a problem while filing an RTI application or when they need the stamp for other work,” the petition had said.
Mukherjee had urged a Division Bench of Chief Justice S S Nijjar and Justice P C Ghose to pass an order, directing the state government to amend Section 3 of the RTI Rule.
The matter came up for hearing on Friday.
Mukherjee’s counsel moved the plea that the state government should make necessary arrangements to sell the stamp through post offices.Following the argument, counsel for the state, Sandip Srimany, said the government was fully aware of the unavailability of the stamp. In fact, the government was thinking of amending section 3 in future, he said.
The matter was adjourned on Friday. The case will come up for hearing once the court reconvenes after the summer vacation in June.