Panaji, Mar 25 (IANS): The Goa State Information Commission (GSIC) on Friday issued notices to the Goa Raj Bhavans's first appellate authority and its public information officer (PIO), asking them to remain present on April 6 in order to respond to two appeals filed by a city lawyer over the failure of the Governor's office to furnish information sought under the Right to Information Act.

The two appeals will be heard by the Chief Information Commissioner, Vishwas Satarkar.

The lawyer, Aires Rodrigues, has claimed in his appeal filed before the GSIC that the Raj Bhavan had denied information sought under the RTI Act.

In October last year, Rodrigues had applied to the Raj Bhavan seeking copies of all the official letters written by then Governor Satya Pal Malik to the Prime Minister and the union Home Minister during his tenure in Goa from 2019-2020. In a written response, the Raj Bhavan PIO, Gaurish Shankhwalkar, had said that the letters were unavailable despite being searched.

The Raj Bhavan has been at the centre of a controversy for nearly a decade now, over its refusal to acknowledge itself as a "public authority", even after the GSIC passed an order in 2011, stating that the institution should share information under the RTI Act, because it was a "public authority".

Following the Commission's 2011 order, the Raj Bhavan had appealed in the Bombay High Court of Goa challenging the contents of the Commission's order.

In the same year, the high court had also upheld the order of the Commission, following which the Raj Bhavan had appealed in the Supreme Court.

Incidentally, soon after taking over as Governor last year, P.S. Sreedharan Pillai in a public address had said that he would open the institution's doors to RTI queries.

"I would like to publicly declare my policy that Governors are bound to furnish information to the people and people are supreme... I do not want to blame anybody, but hereafter RTI with respect to Raj Bhavan will be available for all the citizens," Pillai had said.

Pillai took over as Goa Governor in July 2021.