A liberal reading should be given to the RTI application
16 Dec, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Oriental Insurance Company Ltd to seek information pertaining to stagnation increment as sanctioned on the basis of performance and recommendations of Divisional Manager/ Branch Manager which was due to the appellant in 2006. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided partial information to the appellant.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the respondent submitted that partial information has been provided to the appellant.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) noted the reluctance of the PIO to provide specific and correct information and disagreed with the argument of the PIO that the request for information has to be seen within the narrow confines of the words used by the appellant. The Commission held that the refusal of the PIO to enlarge the words to cover their natural meaning has caused delay in disclosure of information to the appellant thereby resulting in mental anguish and harassment to him. Therefore, the commission directed that under the provisions of section 19 (8)(b) of the RTI Act, a compensation of Rs. 3000/- should be provided by the public authority to the appellant for the detriment caused to him.
The Commission also directed the PIO to provide a copy of the one page format in which the performance of the appellant was recorded and recommendations of the Divisional Manager/Branch Manager was given before sanctioning/not recommending the stagnation increment of the appellant in 2006.
Citation: Mr. Ravi Kumar Gupta v. Oriental Insurance Company Ltd in Appeal: No. CIC/DS/A/2012/000925
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/877
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission