Noting related to award of tender
14 Dec, 2011
Background
The Applicant sought complete noting portion of the file relating to ‘Manufacturing, supplying and stacking of 65 mm maximum six machine ….. with patch doubling between Munderwa Babhnan section of N.E.Railway’.
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The PIO informed that since the concerned file is under investigation, the information cannot be provided. The PIO stated that the tender in this case was awarded to a certain contractor who had successfully completed the work that was assigned to him. When the same Contractor was awarded another job, it came to the attention of the Public Authority that the Contractor has submitted fake credentials and that further investigation had revealed that the Contractor had submitted fake credentials in the contract mentioned in the instant case too. Accordingly, the Vigilance branch took up the case for investigation and since the basis of the fake credentials submitted the second time were those submitted in the instant case, they had denied the information to the appellant u/s 8(1)(h) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders; of the RTI Act. The PIO could not convince the Commission as to how the disclosure of information being sought by the appellant will impede the process of investigation. Therefore, the Commission directed the PIO to provide the file notings to the appellant with respect to the tender, after invoking Section 10(1), if required, to sever those portions that are exempt from disclosure u/s 8(1).
Citation: Shri Samarendra Vikram Singh v. North Eastern Railway in File No: CIC/AD/A/2011/002179