Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Tuesday informed the high court it has withdrawn a circular issued by state chief secretary directing the Public Information Officers (PIOs) to first secure approval of heads of department or secretaries before furnishing information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.
Advocate general BS Prasad submitted this before the division bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Sharma and Justice Tukaramji that the state government has withdrawn the internal circular issued and a fresh notification was issued on November 12.
After recording the AG’s submission, the high court disposed of the three PILs challenging the restrictions imposed by CS in implementation of the RTI Act. The chief justice observed. “The notification would put an end to the controversy in the present case.”
The division bench was hearing three PILs on the same issue, challenging the Internal Circular (UO Note 3674/GPM&AT/2021 dated 13-10-2021) issued by the chief secretary, through which all the special chief secretaries / principal Secretaries / secretaries to the government and all the HODs were directed to instruct the PIOs designated / appointed in their office to obtain orders from the HODs before any information is divulged to the applicant under the Right to Information Act, 2005.
Earlier, on November 1, 2021, the high court had issued stay orders on implementation of the circular.
