Records of de-sealing of properties
13 Dec, 2011
Back ground
Information about the sealing and de-sealing of the properties by the Central Zone before and after the approval of competent authority along with name and address of the owner from 1st January 2006 onwards and status of the same were sought by the appellant. The PIO offered inspection of records while replying that the requisite information is not in material form and compilation of information will divert the resources of the office. The appellant filed appeal before FAA, who re-iterated the offer for inspecting the records.
View of CIC
When the case came up before the CIC, the appellant claimed that he was not given an inspection, whereas the respondent claims that the appellant refused to inspect the records. The Commission directed the PIO to bring the Sealing Register and the file where Police has been informed about the tampering of the seals from 2006 onwards which were inspected by the appellant. The PIO admitted that a lot of properties were sealed for misuse as per the directions of Monitoring Committee but there is no record of it in terms of a sealing register or a compiled list. The Appellant pointed out that this means there is no means of knowing how many properties were sealed and how many were de-sealed. The respondent submitted that there is monthly report of the properties that have been sealed each month on account of misuse. The Commission directed the PIO to send these reports to the Appellant for the period 2006 onwards.
The PIO submitted that there is no compiled record of the properties that were de-sealed as there is no list available and the various orders will be available in the thousands of files. The Commission noted that this appears to be a glorious method for arbitrariness and corruption.
Comments
The case highlights the need for a systematic maintenance of the data by the public authorities failing which they would be open to charges of being arbitrary.
Citation: Mr. K. P. Singh v. Municipal Corporation of Delhi in Decision No. CIC/SG/A/2011/002177/15697Adjucnt