Appellant sought inspection of the Dak Dispatch & Receipt Register of the O/o Secretary of Ministry of Railways - Respondent offered inspection of the DAK/Receipts registers of the Central Registry Section - CIC: Provide inspection as desired by Applicant
1 May, 2020O R D E R
1. The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), M/o Railways, Railway Board, Rail Bhawan, Raisina Road, New Delhi seeking permission to inspect the Dak Dispatch and Receipt Register of the O/o Secretary of Ministry of Railways w.e.f 01.01.2017 till date.
2. As the CPIO had not provided the requested information within a period of 30 days, the appellant filed the first appeal dated 10.05.2018 requesting that now the information should be provided to him. As the first appellate authority did not give him any reply, he filed a second appeal u/Section 19(3) A second appeal against the decision under sub-section (1) shall lie within ninety days from the date on which the decision should have been made or was actually received, with the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission: Provided that the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, may admit the appeal after the expiry of the period of ninety days if it is satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from filing the appeal in time. of the RTI Act before the Commission on this ground and requested the Commission to take appropriate legal action against the CPIO u/Section 20 of the RTI Act.
Hearing:
3. The appellant, Shri Ashwani Kumar, and the respondent, Shri Om Prakash, Section Officer, M/o Railways, Railway Board, Rail Bhawan, Raisina Road, New Delhi attended the hearing in person. The written submissions are taken on record.
4. The appellant submitted that vide his RTI application in question, he has sought inspection of the Dak Dispatch and Receipt Register of the O/o Secretary of Ministry of Railways w.e.f 01.01.2017 till date. The respondent has, however, not provided him inspection of the relevant registers till date. He requested the Commission to direct the respondent to provide inspection of the correct records.
5. The respondent submitted that vide letter dated 06.11.2018, the appellant was invited for inspection. However, the appellant chose not to inspect.
6. The appellant contested that vide the above noted letter, the respondent offered inspection of the DAK/Receipts registers of the Central Registry Section. However, vide the RTI application, the inspection was sought for Dak Dispatch and Receipt Register of the O/o Secretary. He further submitted that the said letter dated 06.11.2018 was received after the filing of the second appeal by the appellant.
Decision:
7. The Commission, after hearing the submissions of both the parties and perusing the records, observes that although inspection has been offered by the respondent to the appellant vide letter dated 06.11.2018, the said inspection does not pertain to the relevant records, as sought by the appellant vide the RTI application in question. The Commission, therefore, directs the respondent to provide an opportunity of inspection to the appellant, at a mutually convenient date, with respect to the Dak Dispatch and Receipt Register of the O/o Secretary of Ministry of Railways w.e.f 01.01.2017 till date, as sought in the RTI application dated 30.03.2018, within a period of 15 days from the date of receipt of a copy of this order under intimation to the Commission.
8. With the above observations, the appeal is disposed of.
9. Copy of the decision be provided free of cost to the parties.
Neeraj Kumar Gupta
Information Commissioner
Citation: Ashwani Kumar v. M/o Railways, Railway Board in Second Appeal No. CIC/RAILB/A/2018/143365, Date:-17.03.2020