India Right To Information

It was in May this year that RTI activist Vijay Chauhan was sent to Arthur Road prison after the State Information Commission complained that he and six other RTI activists had prevented state information commissioner Suresh Joshi from carrying out his duty. Chauhan, however, turned even that jail stay into a window of opportunity. In prison, he came across a convict who said he was serving time in jail despite completing his decreed term of 14 years. That was enough to set Chauhan's activist spirit ticking again.

"I realised how difficult it was for a man to stay even a day in prison and here I was talking to someone who was doing time in jail despite serving his conviction period,'' Chauhan said, recalling his encounter with the prisoner. After he came out of jail, he filed another RTI query asking for the status of 264 prisoners whose term in jail was to be scrutinised and released in accordance with a Bombay High Court order early this year. "I also asked the state home department to furnish the list of prisoners across the state languishing in jail even after serving their term,'' he said.

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