Adv. Aires Rodrigues has today served a legal notice on the Registrar of the Goa University over the failure to upload minutes of the meetings of the Executive Council and Academic Council of the University. A copy of the notice has been sent to the Chancellor Satya Pal Malik and the Vice- Chancellor Varun Sahni
Adv. Rodrigues in his notice has stated that if the University fails to act within seven days he would be constrained in Public Interest despite being a former law student of the University to approach the Bombay High Court at Goa seeking appropriate directions in the matter.
Adv. Rodrigues in his notice has also stated that a perusal of the Goa University website sadly reveals that the last minutes of the Executive Council available is of the meeting held on 15 March 2019 and that there has been no uploading of minutes of meetings held over the last 18 months. Adv. Rodrigues has further pointed out that as far as the Academic Council is concerned the last minutes available for public scrutiny is of that meeting held on 13th December 2019.
Pointing out that this very sorry state of affairs does not augur well while the thrust has to be to ensure transparency and accountability in Governance, Adv. Rodrigues in his notice has urged the Registrar to ensure that the University website is promptly and regularly updated making the minutes of all the meetings of the Executive council and Academic council available to the public for their information and scrutiny.
Drawing the attention of the Registrar to a Bombay High Court judgment, Adv. Rodrigues has pointed out that as per the provisions of the RTI Act, 2005 all the documents need to be uploaded on the website in terms of Section 4 of the RTI Act which was being done previously and which has been now stopped suddenly.
Adv. Rodrigues has also stated that something which is being hidden and of which it is intended not to be put in public domain defeats the very purpose of the Right to know guaranteed under the Constitution and also the mandate of the RTI Act, 2005.
Adv. Rodrigues in his notice has further stated that it cannot be contended that the Goa University is running short of funds to upload the documents, when the computerization has already been completed and the uploading of other documents is being done regularly.
