The Bombay High Court has issued a directive to the Maharashtra government and the commissioner's office to address the "serious problems" with the commissioner's website and ensure its immediate functionality. The court also requested an appropriate reply from charity commissioner's offfice
Representational Image. File Pic
The Bombay High Court has issued a directive to the Maharashtra government and the commissioner's office to address the "serious problems" with the commissioner's website and ensure its immediate functionality.
While the charity commissioner's office said the state government was not assisting in the proper operation of the website, the government's Maharashtra Information Technology Corporation Ltd (MAHA IT) stated that the commissioner's office had not provided the requisite information.
As reported by PTI, in orders issued earlier this month, a bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Advait Sethna at the Bombay High Court instructed the charity commissioner's office to assign an officer to communicate with MAHA IT and make sure that all website-related concerns were resolved.
The High Court said that "It appears that there are serious problems with the website of the charity commissioner," HC said.
Furthermore, the court also noted that although the charity commissioner's office had submitted a report, its website was functional, and the aforesaid was untrue.
The Bombay High Court bench was hearing a petition filed by Shraddha More. Sharddha More raised concerns about the non-availability of the option to e-file cases before the designated officers under the state charity commissioner.
When the matter was put up in the High Court, the charity commissioner then submitted a report to the court, stating that "the organisation's website had been operational since August 2016, and the MAHA IT was managing it."
While submitting his report, the charity commissioner stated that "charity organisations require around 500 GB of space per month on the server of the State Data Centre." However, the same was not being provided, and hence, the website was non-functional on several days.
As per the report, the charity commissioner's office has also issued a written letter to the state information and technology and the law and judiciary departments. The letter from the charity commissioner's office requested the space on the server.
The report also said that "Recently, 14.99 TB space was provided, but the website remained non-functional due to some technical issues." It also added that these issues were resolved and the website is now functioning smoothly.
It further said that the charity commissioner's office has started preparing a new website through a competent agency.
Furthermore, the MAHA IT informed the HC bench that the charity commissioner's office had delayed responses on various issues, leaving it unable to complete critical work.
Addressing the petitioner's complaint, the court then asked the charity commissioner to appoint an officer to work with MAHA IT personnel on an annual maintenance contract.
"All necessary requirements to upgrade the server and install up-to-date technical requirements shall be completed as expeditiously as possible and within three weeks," the court ordered.
The Maharashtra government was also ordered by the court to furnish prompt financial support for the server upgrading and cloud space acquisition.
The bench noted that the assistant or deputy charity commissioner was not updating the data on the website.
"The charity commissioner is directed to direct all its officers/staff to update the data of all the proceedings, and there ought not to be any delay in the uploading of such orders and/or proceedings," the court said on the ongoing matter.
Adding to it, the High Court also said that "the government and the charity commissioner's office must submit their compliance affidavits by June 11th, when the bench scheduled a follow-up session."
The high court stated that parties were allowed to file their proceedings manually or offline until the next hearing because the website was not operational.
(With PTI Inputs)
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