CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday questioned HR&CE department why its property register cannot be uploaded on the official website.
The query was raised by Justice V Lakshminarayanan when a petition, filed by temple activist T R Ramesh seeking a direction to the department to publish the GOs, notifications, tenders and other documents relating to funds and properties of the temples on the official website under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, came up for hearing.
The judge asked why the department is reluctant to make proactive disclosure which it ought to have made voluntarily as per the statutory mandate under Section 4 of the RTI Act which provides for uploading of tenders, audit objections, land registers and notifications relating to funds.
Special government pleader N R R Arun Natarajan submitted that certain land documents can’t be uploaded on the website as they may be misused.
He said details of tenders have been uploaded on the respective temple websites and stated that a detailed counter-affidavit would be filed on the matter.
The judge adjourned the matter to November 12 for further hearing.