Ask a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and get threatened with legal action for daring to approach the appellate authority. Not only that, a copy of the threatening reply is forwarded straight to the Chief Minister and the minister handling the department concerned.

This is what the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital authorities did recently with an inconvenient query. A query was sent to the hospital superintendent on August 10 asking why the hospital continued to buy suture material (polyglactin 910) used in surgeries despite receiving complaints about its quality from half a dozen surgeons.

The executive officer of the hospital in his reply on September 9 refused to give the information saying doing so will help vested interests. It also warned of a serious view of the matter if the correspondence was continued. Not satisfied with the reply, the applicant approached the appellate authority, Dr M M Anchalia, who is also the medical superintendent of the hospital.

Kantibhai Parmar, the applicant, close to the representative of a rival firm, in his appeal said the reply was not only misleading but also far from the truth.

Appellate authority Dr Manjula Anchalia in reply ( No 631/2009) dated September 11 told the applicant that no information as sought could be divulged because the matter was under probe. “Meanwhile, you are again instructed not to indulge in any correspondence in this case… still if you continue with the correspondence, the office will be compelled to take legal action against you for causing unnecessary hindrance in the government administration, which may be taken note of,” she said.

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