RTI Query - Proceedings of Committee appointed in wake of Fifth Pay Commission
2 Dec, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) seeking information regarding the removal of anomaly in the pay scale of investigators raised before the National Anomaly Committee appointed after the implementation of the Fifth CPC. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed that the relevant file was not traceable in spite of his best efforts and that the desired information would be provided after the file was available.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the respondent submitted that the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations had come many years back and the specific file relating to the Anomaly Committee and its recommendations on any particular anomaly in the pay scale of investigators/ junior investigators was not traceable.
View of CIC
The Commission directed the PIO to find out whether such records have a lifespan and whether they are supposed to be available even now. The CIC held that if these records are supposed to be in existence, the relevant section in the department must search for the records and locate the specific file based on which information could be given. The Commission also directed the PIO to recheck the records and provide the available information to the appellant however, if the records are not still traceable or had been destroyed according to the record retention schedule; the PIO must inform the appellant suitably.
Comments
Untraceable/ missing files are fairly common in the government set-up. In the RTI era, good record keeping has become a must for the public authorities.
Citation: Mr. Subhash Dwivedi v. Department of Personnel and Training in File No. CIC/SM/A/2012/000377
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/837
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission