Legal dept fails to update civic chief on pending court cases since Nov 2014: RTI

The directions were issued to facilitate the civic chief to know about the nature, number and current status of ongoing legal cases

Pune: A reply to a query under the Right to Information Act (RTI) has revealed that despite instruction by the then Pune municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar in 2014 to the legal department head making it mandatory to file report of all litigations (by and against Pune Municipal Corporation) on the fifth of every month, it has been not followed since nine years.

The RTI application was filed by civic activist Vivek Velankar during the weekly RTI information public access programme. (HT FILE PIC)

The directions were issued to facilitate the civic chief to know about the nature, number and current status of ongoing legal cases.

The RTI application was filed by civic activist Vivek Velankar during the weekly RTI information public access programme.

“The legal department took three months to answer the query. The insubordination exposes the negligence and inefficiency of the legal department at a time when PMC is facing litigation cases of ₹2,000 crore related to property tax,” he said.

Velankar has petitioned PMC commissioner Vikram Kumar to take strict action against the legal department head for not furnishing monthly information related to pending cases.

The PMC legal department, in its written reply to Velankar through a letter dated February 14, 2023, said, “As per the government resolution dated November 19, 2014, the legal department head has not sent the report from November 19, 2014, to September 2022 through additional commissioner to the PMC commissioner.”

The PMC administration has been criticised for its inept handling of recovery of property dues worth over ₹2,000 crore.