Dear Dhavalji,

Thank you for the update.

1)  If at the end of the day, the NMM keeps ignoring the court order in spite of your non-compliance complaint, is there an enforcement mechanism the Indian courts can use to compel compliance?

2) I also followed your instructions and also got 27,049 records, but when I accessed any one of them. There was info and a link but the link did not download anything.  So I'm not sure if any manuscripts have been put in the public domain.

Thanks again for your great efforts.

Harry Spier

On Fri, Dec 16, 2022 at 8:35 PM Dhaval Patel <drdhaval2785@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Harry and list members,

I regret to inform that there has not been compliance to the order by NMM. I have filed a non-compliance complaint. It was heard in November end. Order is yet to be received. 

In the meanwhile, there seems to be certain manuscripts which are put in public domain by NMM. 

Steps:

1. Visit https://www.bharatiyakritisampada.nic.in/ 

2. Click on Digital Manuscripts.

3. Search for the manuscript.

I checked with writing only “a” and searched with the presumption that every name of title would have at least one “a” in its spelling. It gave me a response stating that there are 27,049 manuscripts matching the query. I have not checked, but it seems that these many manuscripts are available in digital format for viewing online. If the presumption is good, this is a substantial improvement.

With best wishes,

Dhaval

On Sat, 17 Dec 2022 at 6:58 AM, Harry Spier <vasishtha.spier@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear list members,

Its now over a year since Dhaval Patel informed the list that through his great efforts the NMM (National Mission for Manuscripts) was ordered by the Central Information Commission to put all the manuscripts it had photographed into the public domain.

Does anyone know the current status of this.  Has the order been complied with either partially or in full.

Thanks,

Harry Spier

Harry Spier

On Mon, Nov 1, 2021 at 12:57 PM Dhaval Patel via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear scholars,

This information may be of interest to those of you who work with manuscripts for their research. It is regarding access of manuscripts digitized by National Mission for Manuscripts, Government of India.

I would like to bring it to the notice of this august gathering that my second appeal in honourable Central Information Commission was decided on 30.10.2021. The order is attached herewith.

Honourable Information Commissioner Mr. Uday Mahurkar has decided this matter with a well reasoned order. 

The order directs NMM to do two things.

1. Put the digitized manuscripts (roughly 3 lacs) in public domain within a period of 1 year

and

2. Allow me access of 30000 manuscripts for downloading the same within a period of 1 month.

This order would surely pave the way for easier access of manuscripts digitized by NMM to research scholars.

 I once again pay my respects to the honourable Information Commissioner for enabling access to this centuries old manuscript treasure of India. I also place my appreciation on record for NMM and manuscript repositories without whose support the manuscripts would not have been digitized, and their digital access would have been impossible.

Dr. Dhaval Patel

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Dr. Dhaval Patel
www.sanskritworld.in