Goa Chief Information Commissioner, Leena Mehendale on Wednesday passed an order upholding that the Archbishop, in his capacity as ‘Patriarchal Tribunal’, is a public authority for annulment of marriages and answerable to queries limited to the aspects of annulment.
Ms. Mehendale passed the order disposing of preliminary points raised by respondent as to whether Archbishop Patriarchal Tribunal of the East Indies, who is also patriarch of Archdiocese of Goa and Daman is a public authority within the meaning of Section 2 of the right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.
She further ruled that a distinction maybe made in future between any citizen asking an RTI query and a Christian citizen asking the same. However, the present occasion is not for such a differentiation as RTI query asked by person from Christian community, CIC said.
The complaint was filed by Antonio Michael Abel of Goa before the CIC following denial of her plea to Archbishop in 2011 to allow her inspection of register of annulment of marriages and another requesting to show her his authority to act as Archbishop Patriarch Tribunal as obtained from the Pope.
The CIC has now fixed the complaint for further hearing to allow respondent to reply to RTI queries raised by complainant, on March 17, 2015.
