Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday fumed at the state government for not submitting its contentions since six months, over a PIL pertaining to hiding of more than 43, 462 Government Orders (GOs).
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy, was dealing with a petition filed by Perala Shekar Rao, Shekarji, a social activist.
The bench asked, “Why were the GOs not uploaded. We are living in the Silicon era and Hyderabad is referred as the Silicon Valley of India.
On other hand you are keeping GOs away from public domain and have not responding to notices issued by the Court six months back. Now you come to us and ask for more time to file the counter. Such delay in submitting contentions is not expected from the government.”
Giving one final opportunity to the state government to file the counter, the Court directed the Chief Secretary to submit it by February 28.
In the PIL, petitioner Shekarji charged the Telangana government with wontedly and intentionally trying to hide availability of Government Orders (G.Os) in the official website of Government Orders Issue Registrar (ts.goir.nic.in).
The petitioner brought to the notice of the court that the government had kept as many as 43,462 GOs in secret without uploading the details in the official website during the period June 2, 2014 to August 15, 2019.
He also submitted that these GOs constituted more than 40 percent of the 1.04,171 GOs issued by the Telangana government during the period.
The PIL was heard by the same bench on September 18, 2019 and the court had ordered the state to file its contention within four weeks. However, the government did not obey the court orders.
The counsel for the petitioner, on Monday urged the court to direct the state to upload the GOs, instead of asking them to file counter.
In support of his arguments, he referred the judgment delivered by the Madras High Court in a similar issue.
The Bench denied the counsel’s request by stating that some GOs could be confidential.
