CIC: The PIO provided interim replies stating that the application is under process as it will take time to provide the information subject to availability; There is no provision that requires a PIO to take indefinite time to create the information sought
29 Mar, 2017Information sought:
The Complainant sought dates when MoD puts Army order AO 1/2003/MP, rules and regulations for examination of Physical and Battle Casualty of deceased Army personnel, office manual laying own procedure of dealing with representation received regarding faulty declaration of casualty status etc. in public domain and the details of the public domain where such information are uploaded.
Grounds for the Complaint:
The CPIO has not provided the desired information after the interim reply. 2 Relevant Facts emerging during
Hearing:
The following were present:-
Complainant: Present through VC.
Respondent: Maj. R.N. Sharma, CPIO, IHQ of MoD(Army) present in person.
Complainant stated that due to some misunderstanding from the contents of the Commission’s notice, it was assumed that the hearing of the present matter has been cancelled therefore he is not readily prepared with submissions and wanted the Commission to allow him time to send a rejoinder.
Commission accepted the request of the Complainant and is now in receipt of the submissions via email on 17.03.2017. It is contested that till date the public authority has not uploaded the requisite documents in the public domain.
Decision
Commission observes from the perusal of the contents of the RTI Application that the information sought is not as per Section 2(f) “information” means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force; of the RTI Act as the questions are futuristic and vague. The information sought vide last query although qualifies as information as per Section 2(f) “information” means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force; , yet it is in continuity to the preceding questions seeking such dates when the public authority will put certain enlisted information in public domain.
It is also observed that the CPIO provided interim replies stating that the application is under process as it will take time to provide the information subject to availability. It may be noted that the CPIO reply is not appropriate in as much as it should have been clearly stated if the information was available or not.
There is no provision in RTI Act that requires a CPIO to take indefinite time to create the information sought. With these observations, Complaint is disposed off.
(Divya Prakash Sinha)
Information Commissioner
Citation: Nityananda Das v. ADG MT (AE) G – 6, D – 1 Wing IHQ of MoD (Army) in File No. CIC/RK/C/2016/000086/SD; Date of Decision : 24/03/2017