RTI application seeking information regarding establishment of President and its entitlements
19 Dec, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the President’s Secretariat seeking information relating to the complaint handling policy followed in the President Secretariat and others relating to both the establishment of the President and its various entitlements. The Public Information Officer (PIO) refused to disclose any information on the ground that the queries did not amount to information within the meaning of 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. On the directions of the First Appellate Authority (FAA), he provided some information.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant complained that the information provided by the PIO was not adequate and complete. He wanted to know about the total number of vehicles in the President Secretariat and their cost including the maintenance cost. The respondent submitted that there were in all 52 vehicles in the President Secretariat garage and these vehicles had been bought at various times in the past. He explained that the details about the maintenance of these vehicles were kept in different files and compilation of the data regarding all the vehicles just in order to respond to the appellant would be a very time consuming task. Hence, the PIO had mentioned only about the total number of vehicles in his reply and not any information about the cost or maintenance.
View of CIC
The Commission observed that it would be useful if the information about the gross expenditure on the maintenance of the vehicles in the garage annually including the cost of the POL can be disclosed because such information should be available already in a compiled form. The CIC directed the PIO to find out from the relevant divisions and provide this information to the appellant if it is already available in a compiled form and if it was not available in an aggregate and compiled form, the PIO should inform the appellant suitably.
Citation: Mr. M. Negi Reddy v. President’s Secretariat in File No. CIC/SM/A/2012/000975
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/889
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission