CIC: PIO to revisit the instant RTI Application and provide a revised reply to the appellant, free of cost via speed post, within 30 days from the date of receipt of this order and accordingly compliance report to this effect be duly sent to the CIC
5 Jul, 2023
Information sought:
The Appellant sought following information:
Provide me information under RTI Act under section 7(1) Subject to the proviso to sub-section (2) of section 5 or the proviso to subsection (3) of section 6, the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, on receipt of a request under section 6 shall, as expeditiously as possible, and in any case within thirty days of the receipt of the request, either provide the information on payment of such fee as may be prescribed or reject the request for any of the reasons specified in sections 8 and 9: in hindi as per the attached file.
PIO furnished reply, vide letter dated 16.04.2022, as under:
The National Testing Agency is self-sustained organisation. As NTA conducts several examinations, the fee charged from the candidates kept at the minimum for meeting the input costs and administrative costs only. However, the information sought is not readily available.
Dissatisfied with the response received from PIO, Appellant filed First Appeal, vide letter dated 17.04.2022.
Grounds for Second Appeal:
The PIO has not provided correct information to the Appellant.
Relevant Facts emerging during Hearing:
The following were present: -
Appellant: Present
Respondent: Binod Kumar Sahu (Director& CPIO)
Appellant has submitted that he has not received the information. He further requested the Commission to direct the CPIO to furnish the relevant information.
Upon the Commission instance, the CPIO has submitted that the fees charged from the candidates are decided by the governing body of their organisation. He further affirmed that he would abide by the orders of the Commission.
Decision:
Commission, on the basis of submission of parties during hearing and perusal of case records, observes that Appellant is not satisfied with the reply furnished by the concerned PIO. Therefore, Commission directs the concerned PIO to revisit the instant RTI Application and provide a revised reply, with regards to the instant RTI Application, to the appellant, free of cost via speed post, within 30 days from the date of receipt of this order and accordingly compliance report to this effect be duly sent to the Commission by the PIO.
In case relevant information, as sought in the instant RTI Application, pertains to some other Branch/Department, then the PIO should procure and provide the same to the Appellant. In doing so, PIO must make sure that information which is exempted from disclosure under RTI Act, 2005 must not be disclosed to the appellant. No further action lies.
The appeal is disposed of accordingly.
Heeralal Samariya
Information Commissioner
Citation: Abhinav Prakash v. National Testing Agency, Department of Higher Education (Ministry of Education), CIC/NTAGN/A/2022/630133; Date of Decision: 30.05.2023