Bar Council of Delhi ducks RTI queries.

[Mahendra Kumar Gupta]

Bar Council of Delhi ducks RTI queries.

 

 

I filed RTI application to the PIO, Bar Council of Delhi to know the action taken on my complaint against Shri Bhola Ram, advocate, in Sept. 2013, also paid Rs. 500/- as fee to Council apart from submitting 55 copies of complaint as per rules of the BCD. Shri Ram, advocate, after taking Rs. 7,000/- as advance, neither filed the case in the against Vatika Ltd. In the Consumer Forum nor refunded the advance taken to me.  After vigorous follow-up, he had to return the file to me.

 

 

On not getting any reply on my complaint, filed RTI application after six months i.e. in March, 2014.  The information solicited, reply given by Shri V.B.S. Sirohi, CPIO and the prayer made by me in the first appeal are as under:

 

Information solicited in para (c) of RTI application: 

 

Please provide the details of pending complaints preferably in the following performa:

 

S.No.  Name of complainant   Name of advocate   Date of complaint

   1                2                               3                           4

 

Information given:

 

With regard to the details of pending complaints, it is informed that Bar Council of Delhi is a statutory body having quasi-judicial powers to conduct inquiry and trial against advocates, who commit professional or other misconduct and the proceedings and details of the enquiries and trials are always kept secret from any stranger till the gets it finality.  It is worthwhile to mention here that only after the passing of order / judgment in any matter, the document related to the said trial/ enquiry becomes a public document and can be made available to any person seeking information in that regard.  Accordingly, it is not feasible for the Council to provide the requisite information as per your prescribed table.

 

Prayer made in the First Appeal:

That the learned CPIO has not provided details of pending complaints requested on point (c) of the RTI application though the information is not exempt under section 8 or any other section of the RTI Act.  Moreover, to the best of my knowledge, there is no decision of any Court to withhold the information on any other ground. Even the Courts give the information of pending cases under the RTI. Moreover, in this point, I never asked about the proceedings and details of the enquiries and trials and moreover, I am not a stranger but an affected (victim) party and RTI applicant.

 

Information requested in para (d)

Please provide the list of complaints heard after the submission of my complaint and basis/ ground for superseding my complaint.

 

Information given:

Please refer to reply given in Para (c).  It is further pertinent to mention here that the basis/ ground for superseding any complain is with the management of the Council and at any state, the Council feels any necessity to consider any matter urgently, a separate day for such meeting can also be fixed.

 

Prayer made in the First Appeal:

Learned CPIO has also not provided any information requested on point (d) of my RTI application.  Rather, he has provided some unsolicited and irrelevant information and even in that information, has not informed whether hearing of my complaint has been superseded or its status. 

 

From the above, it appears that it is useless to lodge any complaint with the Bar Council of Delhi.