In a first of its kind, a consumer court in Delhi has got a steno because of the RTI Act. For more than 18 months, the consumer court in Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh area was functioning with just one steno when there were vacancies for two. So much so, that the judge in the court used to tell the litigants that there was a huge backlog of cases as the court was managing with just steno.

Delhi resident Mohit Goel noted this when he accompanied a friend to the Court in April this year. On talking to other litigants, Goel found that they were also facing problems and blamed on the lack of the steno in the Court.

He discovered that the Court had requested the Department of Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs to appoint a steno. However, the position was lying vacant.

In first week of May, Goel filed an RTI application with the Department of Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs asking why a second steno had not been sanctioned for the consumer Court.

On not getting a satisfactory reply from the public information officer and the first appellate authority of the Department, he filed a complaint with the Central Information Commission (CIC) in July.

“They did not tell me why they were unable to appoint a second steno and what was the action taken regarding the same,” said Goel.
 

However, when the applicant went to the consumer court on August 10, the executive staff told him that a steno had been appointed.

Last week, when the matter came for hearing in the CIC , the Department of Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs informed the Commission about the same.