BCI fails to reply to RTI query for over 1.5 years

Nagpur: An aggrieved petitioner charged the Bar Council of India (BCI) with failure to reply to his queries under the Right to Information (RTI) Act for over a year. The apex body also took over one-and-a-half years to file the reply to his first appeal. He has now filed a second appeal, which would be heard on July 22.
Sanjay Thul, father to a law student and also an RTI activist and social worker, sought information regarding BCI’s control on various national law universities (NLUs) in India and their guidelines on charging fees. Though the application was filed on March 30, 2018, the BCI’s Delhi office failed to reply for a month. Subsequently, Thul filed his first appeal on April 30, which also went unanswered.
The central public information officer (CPIO) at the BCI replied to Thul’s queries only on September 24, 2019. Inconvenience caused to the applicant was regretted, with the CPIO stating that “no information was available to him”. Even the letter of disposal of Thul’s first appeal came on November 4, 2019, after a long gap of over one year and six months.
Thul posed queries regarding exorbitant fees charged by various national law schools in India ranging from Rs1.5 lakh to Rs2 lakh per student. “Even for appearing in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), these universities are charging Rs4,000 from the general category and Rs3,000 for reserved category students. For the same exams, the Maharashtra government is charging Rs300,” the parent said.
In his reply, the CPIO — Ashok Kumar Pandey, joint secretary at BCI’s headquarters in Delhi — provided various reasons for delay in filing the answers. Stating that Thul’s queries were related to lots of colleges and continuous meetings were held to take the decision in this regard, the CPIO said it led to an “involuntary delay” in filing the reply.
“Since the academic year had commenced in colleges, counselling for admissions also started. I (head of department) and other staff members of the department of legal education were extremely tied up in the entire process, as the future of students was at stake. Moreover, there was change/exchange of staff between the BCI departments, that led to further delay,” Pandey mentioned.
An aggrieved Thul said that if a top law body like BCI made mockery of RTI rules, what could be expected from other government offices. “My query is regarding exorbitant fees charged by law universities from the students. Poor and middle class families can’t afford to send their wards to these premier law schools, even if they secure meritorious marks. They should have provided reply within a month as per the rules,” he said.
IN A NUTSHELL
Law student’s father filed RTI query at Bar Council of India
Sought info on its control over NLUs and their guidelines for charging fees
No reply for a month, petitioner filed appeal
Reply to RTI comes an year and six months later