Puducherry: Madras high court has directed the Central Information Commission (CIC), New Delhi, to consider and dispose of a second appeal filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, by a teaching faculty member at a govt arts and science college in Puducherry within a period of eight weeks.Justice Hemant Chandangoudar passed the order while disposing of a petition filed by assistant professor and head of the department of botany at Tagore Government Arts and Science College (TAC), Puducherry S Ramakrishnan.He had had initially filed an RTI application on Feb 20, 2026, seeking information relating to the appointment of the controller of examinations and deputy controllers of examinations in TAC.Dissatisfied with the response provided by the PIO, he filed a first appeal on March 24, 2026, before the First Appellate Authority (principal in-charge) of the college. As the outcome of the first appeal remained unsatisfactory, the professor preferred a second appeal before the CIC on May 23, 2026.Aggrieved by the delay in the disposal of his second appeal by the CIC, he then approached the Madras high court in Sept. During the proceedings, Puducherry govt advocate Ramaswamy Meyyappan assured the court that the second appeal would be disposed of at the earliest in accordance with the law.Recording the submission, the high court disposed of the petition with a specific directive on Oct 1 to the Registrar of the CIC to decide on the second appeal on its own merits and pass appropriate orders within eight weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of the order.
