Application seeking vast information - no penalty imposed for delay in reply
19 Feb, 2012Background
The appellant sought several queries with variety of information regarding the present status of his complaints as well as about the penal action taken against the officers of the EPFO. The PIO gave an interim reply promising to provide the information and, later, provided the information against each of the queries. The Appellate Authority endorsed the information sent by the PIO.
View of the CIC
The Central Information Commission perused the documents and noted that the available information already been provided. About the delay in providing the information, the Respondent submitted that the scope of the RTI request was very vast and the desired information had to be culled out from a large number of files which could not have been completed within the stipulated period of 30 days. The Commission agreed with the submission of the PIO that the time taken in collecting the information was absolutely reasonable in the circumstances and that the PIO could not be blamed because his primary intention was to collect all the information and provide to the Appellant even if it involved some delay. No penalty was imposed on the PIO for the delay.
Comments
The PIO must send an interim reply to protect himself from the charge of malafide denial of information.
Citation: Shri MP Srivastava v. Central Vigilance Commission in file no. CIC/SM/A/2011/000514
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/85
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission