Orissa High Court has amended its Right to Information Rules, 2005, to make the mode of payment to access information easier.

The amended rule was brought in by way of The Orissa High Court Right to Information (Amendment) Rules-2018. Registrar (judicial) C.R. Dash issued a notification to this effect recently. According to the amendment, money orders, Indian postal orders, bank drafts and so on have been included as mode of payment to access information.

Earlier, non-judicial stamp was the only mode of payment to access information under the rules. The amendment follows more than two years after the filing of a PIL seeking harmonisation of the Orissa High Court Right to Information Rule, 2005 with the parent Right to Information Act, 2005.

Sanjib Kumar Patry, 41, a transporter, had filed the PIL in July 2016, highlighting the inconsistency of Orissa High Court’s RTI rules with the parent Right to Information Act, 2005. It prescribed payment of Rs 10 towards application fees in shape of non-judicial stamp. Also, it used to charge Rs 2 in shape of non-judicial stamp for each sheet of paper for providing information. The provisions was “not in consonance” with the provisions of Right to Information Rules, 2012, the petition had pointed out.

“The Orissa High Court Right to Information (Amendment) Rules, 2018, has been notified while the PIL is pending before the high court,” petitioner counsel Shivsankar Mohanty said.

The Orissa High Court’s RTI rules are “unreasonable and arbitrary” as “there is no provision under the RTI Act for separate cost to obtain the application form only”, the petition contends.

Besides, the application fee under the parent RTI Act is Rs 10 and the fee for photo copies is Rs 2. The petition has further sought starting of online facility to receive RTI applications and fees while pointing out that there was no provision for providing access to information to citizens falling under the below poverty line (BPL) category free of cost.