Chennai: Even as RTI activist and Satta Panchayat Iyakkam state president Siva Elango’s arrest for requesting a chair triggered a nationwide protest, Tamil Nadu information commission registrar Chinnaya Naidu on Friday denied the charges that chief information commissioner K.S. Sripathi insisted the activist stand during the proceedings. A bench, comprising Sripathi and commissioner S.F. Akbar, on Wednesday heard the case. “The commissioner never insisted that the petitioner should stand,” Mr Naidu told DC. “Only a staff asked the petitioner to maintain decorum in the court. But Elango insisted that he would sit and talk. Commissioners heard the case and reserved the order. However, the petitioner wanted the order to be delivered in the open court itself,” he said.

On Wednesday, five cases were listed for the forenoon session and Mr Elango’s was the second case. “When the next case came up for hearing, the public information officer of the DGP office objected to the presence of a third party during the hearing of his case. Even then Mr Elango refused to leave the hearing hall and he continued to disrupt the proceedings,” the registrar said. He added that even after the hearing of all the cases were completed, he stayed inside the hearing hall.

Following his refusal to vacate the hall, Ashok Kumar, secretary of the commission, lodged a complaint against Mr Elango for disrupting the proceedings. When asked whether there was any rule that mandates the petitioner to remain standing during the proceedings, Mr Naidu said there is no such rule but it is a practice. Pointing to section 18 (3) of the Right to Information Act, he said under this section, the central information commission or state information commission enjoys the power of the civil court. “During civil proceedings, will any witness depose before the judge while seated? It is a decorum and in the commission, we did not insist to stand,” he added.

Asked about the activist’s charge that the commissioners refused to hear him if he was seated, the registrar said it was a distorted version. “The petitioners was heard by the commissioners,” he said, adding that Elango used to appear in the commission representing somebody’s cases. “There is no such rule to represent other petitioners. But the commission continued to hear their cases without rejecting them,” he pointed out.

On the RTI activist’s charge that penalties were not being imposed on PIOs even for undue delay or refusal to provide information, Mr Naidu said the commission takes every step to get information for the petitioners and penalties and disciplinary actions are also imposed as a last resort.