Can the Department of Public Grievances redress the grievance of State Government employee?
2 Dec, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances seeking information regarding a teacher who served under the State Government of Jharkhand. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed him that his RTI application was transferred to the respective State Government since the Department was not concerned with the information.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that the information sought relates to an employee serving under a State Government. The department concerned in the Government of India has no control or anything to do with the service conditions of State Government employees. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances cannot redress any grievance of any State Government employee when the grievance pertains to that Government and not to the Central Government. The CIC rejected the appeal holding that there is nothing which the PIO can offer by way of information in the case. The Commission advised the appellant to approach the State Government authorities for the desired information.
Citation: Mr. Kalyan Ghosh v. Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances in File No. CIC/SM/A/2012/000397
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/838
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission