As RGNUL Patiala remains one of several national law universities (NLU) that still do not publish their annual financial statements online, one right to information (RTI) applicant approached the Central Information Commission (CIC) against the law school.
The applicant had asked to see electronic copies of its annual reports in June. RGNUL responded to the request by stating that it currently maintained only physical records of annual reports and since they are too voluminous to send by mail to the applicant, the applicant should visit its campus and inspect the records on-site.
The applicant filed a first appeal before RGNUL and eventually approached the CIC on the ground that it was mandatory under the RTI Act 2005 for the law school to maintain its annual reports in electronic form and that the applicant would be greatly inconvenienced by having to travel from a different city to Patiala to inspect those records.
RGNUL registrar and first appellate officer for RTI in his 10 October order directed RGNUL to compute the total cost for mailing the physical records of the annual reports to the applicant and to provide the records to the applicant on their payment of that cost.
The registrar also ruled that RGNUL had not violated the RTI Act by failing to maintain electronic copies of the annual reports as the law school had a resource constraint in doing so and the Act provides for this exception.
Nalsar Hyderabad, NUJS Kolkata, NLU Jodhpur, GNLU Gandhinagar, RMLNLU Lucknow and NLIU Bhopal have all published annual reports on their websites for several years at least until 2015-2016, under the RTI section of their official websites, though some of those are more complete than others.
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Perhaps the list could be provided to LI to verify the veracity and make it public.
Yeah, it was taken down out of pressure put.
HNLU, NLIU, NLU-Assam et. al. have taken stands against arbitrary excesses by the administration, and RGNUL should take inspiration from the same. It's sad that RGNUL's patriarchal administration which outrightly discriminates between girls and boys, ands its arbitrary decisions are not in the public.
There seems to be an environment brewing for protests within RGNUL, and I think the time is ripe for Legally India and Lawctopus to take an interest in RGNUL and its happenings. A media account of the excesses in RGNUL will go a long way in expediting the confrontation with the administration.
XD
And there is one SP Singh..current RGNULites can say more....wait they (RGNUL) are also expert in IP blocking.
P.S.: For all the freedom NLUD's Ranbir Singh provides at his university, he doesn't mind rubbing shoulders with RGNUL's VC and providing the tacit approval to his methods. You'd think him being a part of the Executive Council will lead to some mentoring, but alas!
If out isn't, then this doesn't seem like a case of mischievous reportin. It might be motivated, could you kindly explain what the motivation might be?
While these issues are there, the foundation of the university is strong. I honestly feel that with the right administrative mind-set (of facilitating and helping students instead of curtailing their spirit) and high quality faculty, RGNUL has the potential to become one of the best institutions in the country. Certain key indicators are the quality of their student run journal, regular TEDx events, moot performances and wins in both national and international competitions (Oxford Price Media, Stetson, Nani Palkhiwala, Anand and Anand and Leiden Sarin Air Law to name a few) and other academic and co-curricular achievements.
Apologies for the long post.
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