CIC: The University was established by the Karnataka State Legislature under The Karnataka State Open University Act, 1992 for the introduction and promotion of Open University at ‘State Level’ the CIC has no territorial jurisdiction
3 Nov, 2017
ORDER
1. Shri Krishan Dev, the complainant, had completed his M.Sc. (IT) degree in 2009 from the University. The complainant sought to know the details of his degree, procedure adopted by the University in sending the degree certificate to the complainant along with the date on which it had sent his degree as he had not received it till date.
2. The complainant, not having received any response from the State Public Information Officer (SPIO) within the stipulated time period, had approached the Punjab State Information Commission on 29.4.2014 with a request to direct the CPIO to provide the desired information/documents to the complainant as no response/information was given to him till the date of filing of complaint. The SIC had returned the complainant, vide letter dated 5.5.2014 as the matter was within the Central Information Commission’s jurisdiction. Subsequently, the complaint approached the Commission with a request to take appropriate action in the matter.
3. The matter was heard by the Commission. The complainant submitted that he had completed his M.Sc. degree course from Karnataka State Open University which was a UGC approved University, in July 2009 and submitted a demand draft of Rs. 950/- on 18.2.2013, payable to the Finance Officer, KSOU, for issuing the degree certificate to the complainant but, the University had not issued the certificate till date. However, he had received a reply after three years from the University that no such fee had been received at their end. In fact, the bank had informed him on 6.3.2013 that the demand draft had been paid to KSOU. The complainant, therefore, requested the Commission to take necessary action in the matter.
4. The respondents were not present during the hearing despite the notice for hearing having been duly sent to them. The Commission has, however, received their written submissions in the matter dated 18.8.2017 and 12.9.2017 in which the University had acknowledged that the complainant had completed his degree in MSc (IT) during July 2009 from the University through an academic collaborative institute, Virtual Education Trust (VET), New Delhi. Further, the complainant’s name was also included in the Degree Approval list but, the bank draft of Rs. 950/-, which is stated to have been paid by the complainant for issue of degree certificate to him, had not been received in the University’s Accounts Section nor VET, through which the complainant had applied for the course, had forwarded the requisite records or demand draft to the University and therefore, no degree certificate could be issued to him until the receipt of the requisite fees from the complainant. The respondents have added that since the complainant was not a direct student of the University, he should submit his request to the University through the collaborative institute concerned for taking necessary action in the matter relating to issue of his degree certificate.
5. On hearing the complainant and perusing the available records, the Commission observes that since the University was established by the Karnataka State Legislature under The Karnataka State Open University Act, 1992, vide notification dated 12.2.1996, and as stated in its Statement of Object “to establish for the introduction and promotion of Open University at ‘State Level’ and distance education systems in the educational pattern of the State”, the Commission has no territorial jurisdiction to decide the present matter which is related to State University. However, in view of the submissions of the complainant, the Commission forwards a copy of the complainant’s RTI application along with the relevant documents in the case to the Karnataka State Information Commission to look into the matter and take action as deemed fit against the SPIO concerned of Karnataka State Open University. The complaint is closed.
(Manjula Prasher)
Information Commissioner
Citation: Shri Krishan Dev v. Karnataka State Open University in Appeal No. CIC/RM/C/2014/000576/MP, Date of Decision : September 26, 2017