CIC: PIO has grossly violated the provisions of RTI Act by not providing the information to the Appellant within the stipulated time frame & has disregarded FAA’s order - CIC severely admonished its own PIO for his omission & expressed serious displeasure
29 Jun, 2018
ORDER
Information sought:
The Appellant sought to know status of receipt date of 20 Appeals sent by him and their allotment to Information Commissioner(s) and tentative date of hearing.
Grounds for the Second Appeal:
The CPIO has not complied with the FAA order.
Relevant Facts emerging during Hearing:
The following were present:-
Appellant: Present through VC.
Respondent: A.K. Sharma, Consultant (RTI Cell) & CPIO, Central Information Commission present in person.
Appellant stated that till date he has received status of only 10 of the 20 Appeals referred by him in the RTI Application. He further stated that he is aggrieved with the conduct of CPIOs in taking inordinate time in merely tracing out information, that even in cases where he is providing copy of the untraceable dak, no action is being taken by the CPIO. CPIO submitted that the RTI Application was forwarded to Incharge, Dak Section on 18.11.2014 and with a reminder on 10.12.2014 to provide the requisite information. Subsequently, based on the observation of no reply being provided on the RTI Application, FAA directed then CPIO & DR (CR), Raghubir Singh to provide the information to the Appellant. However, he regrets that no reply was provided by the then CPIO for reasons best known to him, and since the then CPIO relinquished his service soon after, upon receipt of the notice of hearing; he has pursued the case and has collected the status of the Appeals referred in the RTI Application, which he can provide to the Appellant at this stage.
Decision
Commission observes that the then CPIO & DR (CR) Raghubir Singh has grossly violated the provisions of RTI Act by not providing the information to the Appellant within the stipulated time frame and has even disregarded the FAA’s order. Commission severely admonishes the then CPIO & DR (CR) Raghubir Singh for his act of omission and expresses serious displeasure over his failure to execute the statutory responsibility which was bestowed upon him by virtue of the RTI Act.
Commission directs A.K. Sharma, Consultant (RTI Cell) & CPIO to serve a copy of this order to the then CPIO on his present address for him to take note of the admonition as recorded above in his regard.
Further, Commission directs A.K. Sharma, Consultant (RTI Cell) & CPIO to provide the available information as sought in the RTI Application to the Appellant in a point-wise manner. Commission’s directions should be complied within 15 days from the date of receipt of this order.
The appeal is disposed of accordingly.
(Divya Prakash Sinha)
Information Commissioner
Citation: B Parameshwar v. CPIO, Central Information Commission in File No. : CIC/YA/A/2015/001638/SD, Date of Decision:01/03/2018