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Feb 104 min read

The Apex Court of India: RTI Activism on the DHFL Scam

Posted on 10/02/2024 (GMT 08: 55 hrs)

Updated on 07/03/2024 (GMT 16:30 hrs)

I. With regard to the case of the DHFL scam, some of the OBMA members cum DHFL victims sent mass appeals through snail mail/speed post to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Supreme Court of India, on 16/11/2023.

Before these physical appeals to the Supreme Court, few of us sent e-mails to the CJI on 10/11/2023.

The sample letter in the form of mass petition (for both electronic and physical letters) that was sent could be found below:


Urging for the Hastened Resolution of the Cases Related to the DHFL: a Letter to the Hon’ble CJI

Mass Appeals To The Hon’ble CJI Through Snail Mail and Email

After a fortnight of filing these appeals, we filed an RTI to the Department of Justice, Government of India, on 09/12/2023 with Application Number JUSTC/R/E/23/03278 in continuation to the previous appeals, which is given as follows:

Our request was soon PHYSICALLY TRANSFERRED to the Supreme Court of India on 09/12/2023

The New Diarized Application No. in the Supreme Court for our RTI became: Dy. No. 2674/RTI/23-24/SCI.

The comprehensive overview of the journey of this application can be viewed below:

A reply came from the concerned authority on 13th January, 2024, which is given as follows:

Consequently, we filed a first appeal against this reply, and physically sent it to the concerned FAA on 29.01.2024, which is given as follows:

To

Shri H. Shashidhara Shetty,

Registrar,

Supreme Court of India,

Tilak Marg, New Delhi- 110001

Sub: Requesting For Specific Reply to My RTI Application Dy. No. 2674/RTI/23-24/SCI

Dear Mr. Shetty,

In connection with my RTI Dy. No. 2674/RTI/23-24/SCI dated 09/12/2023, this is to inform you that the letter-petition referred to in the said RTI application, dated 16/11/2023 with Inward No. 71362/SCI/PIL(E)/2023, I asked for updates on the pending cases relating to the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) matter at the Honourable Supreme Court of India. Following the letter-petition, the aforementioned RTI was filed for seeking information regarding the steps (if any) taken by the concerned authority in receipt of that given letter-petition.

As per the directions given in the answer sent by your CPIO on 13th January, 2024, the status information of this particular petition cum RTI as shown on the Supreme Court “Grievance Management” webpage seems to be inadequate with regard to my raised point of concern, since neither my letter-petition nor the RTI application were supposed to be PILs, but rather for eliciting information about the status of early disposal of the pending cases on the DHFL matter alone.

Thus, the reply is not sufficient for the matters of concern pointed out by me through the letter-petition and the RTI.

So, please give specific reply to my letter-petition as well as RTI in terms of YES or NO in relation to the given case numbers cited in the said letter-petition.

Also, if you are not legally authorized to answer the given questions in the RTI, kindly transfer it to the concerned answerable legal authority.

Thanking you in anticipation,

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Debaprasad Bandyopadhyay

Cell No. +919830630707

Encl.

  1. Relevant Letter-petition Inward No. 71362/SCI/PIL(E)/2023 dated 16/11/2023

  2. Relevant RTI Application 2674/RTI/23-24/SCI dated 09/12/2023

A further reply came on 02/02/2024, which is given as follows:

Let’s hope for the best and move on to the next one.

~###~

II. We filed an RTI on the Supreme Court RTI Portal on 06/01/2024 with Dy. No. 2928/RTI/23-24/SCI, which is given as follows:

A reply to the above application came on 13th January, 2024:

We appealed further against the above reply on 29.01.2024, which is given as follows:

To

Shri H. Shashidhara Shetty,

Registrar,

Supreme Court of India

Tilak Marg, New Delhi- 110001

Sub: Requesting For Specific, Direct, Unambiguous Reply to My RTI Application Dy. No. 2928/RTI/23-24/SCI

Dear Mr. Shetty,

In connection with my RTI Dy. No. 2928/RTI/23-24/SCI, this is to inform you that the answer sent by your CPIO on 13th January, 2024, is beyond my comprehension, and at the same time (as per as my understanding, legal competence and cognitive ability) not properly addressing the particular questions raised in my RTI application. As per Section 2(f) of the Right to Information Act (2005), giving opinions/advices on matters of public concern fall under the purview of the definitional fixation of “information” per se.

So, please give specific reply to my RTI in terms of YES or NO in relation to the given case numbers cited in the same.

Also, if you are not legally authorized to answer the given questions in the RTI, kindly transfer it to the concerned answerable legal authority.

Thanking you in anticipation,

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Debaprasad Bandyopadhyay

Cell No. +919830630707

Encl.

  1. Relevant RTI Application 2928/RTI/23-24/SCI dated 06/01/2024

In response to the above letter cum first appeal filed by us to the FAA, the following physical letter came on 02.02.2024, which is given as follows:

We are all now looking forward to 26th February, 2024. 

Finally after so many appeals, we are delighted to note that we have got a chance to voice our concerns directly before the Supreme Court of India. Our voices will not remain unheard.

Let us hope for the best.

The War Shall Continue…

UPDATE (07/03/2024):

For Appeal 61/2024, we received the following reply from the FAA via speed post/snail mail (signed 26/02/2024):

For Appeal 62/2024, we received the following reply from the FAA via speed post/snail mail (signed 26/02/2024):

After such extremely dissatisfying replies from the RTI CELL of the Supreme Court of India, we are disheartened. Yet, we will proceed with further actions with regard to the above applications to the Central Information Commissioner (CIC) of India.

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