The order of the Commission had not been complied with by the FAA of CIC - The CIC took a very serious view of this lapse & counselled the FAA to be more careful in future so that such lapses do not recur
26 Jun, 2017O R D E R
1. Shri Virendra Yadav filed a complaint dated 18.12.2015 under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) before the Central Information Commission (CIC) stating that the respondent did not comply with the Order No. CIC/LS/A/2013/001601/SB dated 21.09.2015 of the Commission whereby the Appellate Authority, CIC was directed to inquire into the matter of untraceable records and fix responsibility for the loss/misplacement of the record and take appropriate departmental action against the officers responsible for the loss of the record. The Commission vide this order had also directed that a copy of the inquiry report along with the action taken report be provided to the Commission as well as to the complainant within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of its order.
Hearing:
2. The complainant Shri Virendra Yadav attended the hearing through video conferencing. The respondent Shri A.K. Sharma, Nodal CPIO, CIC was present in person.
3. The complainant requested the Commission to consider his complaint as a second appeal. The complainant submitted that an order dated 21.09.2015 was passed by the Commission in file no. CIC/LS/A/2013/001601/SB, wherein, the FAA, CIC was directed to conduct an enquiry with regard to the missing records and to provide a copy of the enquiry report to the complainant. However, no enquiry has been conducted. The complainant further requested the Commission that if the records have been traced, the information sought should be provided to him.
4. The respondent submitted that in order to have an efficient system for retrieval of records, all the files of the Commission have been scanned. This exercise took a considerable time. Hence, the order of the Commission could not be complied with in time. However, the enquiry has now been completed and a copy of the enquiry report has been sent to the complainant vide letter dated 18.05.2017. The respondent further submitted that the relevant file has since been traced, and hence, the information sought will be provided to him.
Decision:
5. The Commission, after hearing the submissions of both the parties and perusing the records, observes that the order of the Commission had not been complied with by the FAA. The Commission takes a very serious view of this lapse. The Commission, therefore, would like to counsel the FAA, CIC to be more careful in future so that such lapses do not recur and the provisions of the RTI Act are implemented in letter and spirit.
6. The Commission further observes that since the relevant records have now been traced, the respondent is directed to provide information to the complainant within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.
7. With the above observations, the complaint is disposed of.
8. Copy of the decision be provided free of cost to the parties.
(Sudhir Bhargava)
Information Commissioner
Citation: Shri Virendra Yadav v. Central Information Commission in Decision No. CIC/SB/C/2016/000271 Dated 22.05.2017