Take action against the official responsible for misplacing the file: CIC direction
24 Dec, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Department of Revenue seeking information with regard to the action taken on her letter wherein she had raised objections in respect of the sale of a particular property. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided a response to the application.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant explained that the said property is in the name of her son as per the will left by her deceased husband and when the son wanted to sell the property she had sent a letter to the Department objecting to the sale of property. The appellant added that despite her objection the department had gone ahead and had issued an NOC to her son for selling the property. The applicant wanted to know why her objection was not taken into consideration before issuing NOC and also the action taken by the officials on her letter. The respondent submitted that this particular letter is not traceable in the records and hence they are unable to explain as to why NOC was issued despite the objection letter. The appellant handed over a copy of the letter to the respondent indicating that the letter has been diarized in the office of the Public Authority and also contains the signature of the receiver.
View of CIC
The Commission directed the PIO to check the entry records in the office to ascertain that the diary no. relates to the appellant’s letter and once is it is established that the letter has been received in the office to locate the file and provide the copy of the complete file in which the letter has been processed to the appellant. The CIC further directed that if the diary number matches with the letter but the concerned file remains untraceable, the First Appellate Authority (FAA) should enquire into the matter of the missing file, fix the responsibility and take appropriate action against the official found guilty of misplacing the file. The Commission also directed that the appellant should be kept informed about the outcome of the enquiry and the action taken based on the outcome.
Citation: Ms. Rajwanti v. Department of Revenue in File No: CIC/AD/A/2012/002444
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/904
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission