Applicant should be specific and leave nothing to the surmise and speculation of the PIO
1 Oct, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to information (RTI) Act seeking information in relation to the examination conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) for recruitment of Junior Hindi Translators held in 2010. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided some information and denied the rest on the ground that it was third party information.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the Commission observed that some of the queries raised by the appellant in the RTI application were not very clear. For example, the appellant did not given any details of the candidates whose attendance sheet was sought or the details of the candidates whose candidature had been rejected. In the absence of any such details, it was not possible for the PIO to locate the information. The Commission observed that the information seeker has a duty to be as specific as possible in describing the information she wants and cannot leave it to the surmise and speculation of the PIO. The appellant pointed out that this information was related to those candidates who had been invited for the interview, some of whom had been rejected on one ground or the other. The appellant also wanted a copy each of the attendance sheet maintained by the SSC of the candidates who had been invited for the interview, the list of candidates rejected and not allowed to appear in the interview and the Recruitment Rules for the post.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) directed the PIO to provide the sought information holding that it was not covered by any of the exemption provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Citation: Ms. Charu Agarwal v. Staff Selection Commission in File No.CIC/SM/A/2011/002768
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/686
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission