Summary:
Advocate Bandish Soparkar has submitted to the Gujarat High Court that the state government in 2016 was contemplating to implement the online Right to Information (RTI) portal developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC), but the same is yet to be carried out. The submission came in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the advocate seeking the court's direction to the state government for developing an online portal, a feat already achieved by the Union government and several other state governments. Despite the communication, Soparkar claimed that online RTI system is yet to be made available in Gujarat, creating hardships and unnecessary harassment for citizens in securing information from government. However, the government in not implementing the NIC's portal in the state and instead has hired a private company for developing the same. Pandya had submitted that the work entrusted to the company includes the responsibility of RTI Management and it is supposed to complete the work by March 2020..