Can specimen signatures of officials be sought under RTI?
9 Oct, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the East Central Railway General Manager’s Office seeking the specimen signatures of certain officials. The Public Information Officer (PIO) and the First Appellate Authority (FAA) denied the information stating that there was no provision for maintaining signatures of officials in the records of the Public Authority. They also requested the appellant to inspect the signatures of various officials as available on letters and notings.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) noted that the specimen signatures were not expected to be maintained in the records of the Public Authority. The CIC rejected the appeal holding that the information sought by the appellant did not comply with the definition of information as given in section 2(f) “information” means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force; of the RTI Act and therefore it could not be furnished.
Citation: Mr. Krishna Deo Prasad v. East Central Railway General Manager’s Office in File No: CIC/AD/A/2012/001878
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/713
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