Addressing the issue of non- payment of reward through RTI
9 Jul, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Income Tax (IT) department seeking information as to why the remaining part of final reward had not been paid to him despite several reminders. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed the appellant that the office of DG (Investigation) was excluded from the provisions of the RTI Act as per section 24 hence, the information sought cannot be provided.
Proceedings
During the hearing the before Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant submitted that based on his information, IT department had conducted searches in 2004. For providing the information, he was paid Rs. 14,80,000/- as reward but as per the guidelines issued by the IT department, he should be paid Rs 10 lakh more. He alleged that the amount is not being paid to him because of corruption on part of the IT officials and hence, he wants the information.
View of CIC
The Commission ruled that as per the provisions of section 24 of the RTI Act, the office of DG (Inv) has been exempted from the purview of the RTI Act but, section 24(1) Nothing contained in this Act shall apply to the intelligence and security organisations specified in the Second Schedule, being organisations established by the Central Government or any information furnished by such organisations to that Government: Provided that the information pertaining to the allegations of corruption and human rights violations shall not be excluded under this sub-section: provides that information pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations would not be excluded. The Commission held that CBDT should make internal enquiries to ascertain the veracity of the submissions being made by the appellant. The Commission remanded the case to the Chairman, CBDT for taking appropriate action in the matter.
Citation: Shri Jitendra Kumar Navnital Shah v. ADIT (Inv.III) and Addl. DIT (Inv.), Surat in File No. CIC/RM/A/2013/000328
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1431
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