PIO denies information related to himself thus denying natural justice
21 May, 2013An application was filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get a copy of the service book of Additional Deputy Commissioner, Kishtwar (Jammu & Kashmir). The application was rejected by the public information officer (PIO) on the grounds that the sought information was personal in nature.
However, when the matter was brought before the state information commission (SIC), the SIC ruled that service details of a government servant cannot be treated as personal information. The SIC held that service books of public servants are public documents and citizens have a right to get access to them.
It was found that the ADC Kishtwar himself was the PIO in the concerned case. Taking a note of this, the SIC ruled that in such instances, the PIO should refrain from acting as a PIO. Such instances erode the concept of natural justice according to which one cannot be a judge in his own case. The SIC warned the PIO to remain careful in future and directed the concerned Deputy Commissioner to furnish the copy the Service Book of the officer to the applicant within two weeks.
This site feels that the service book contains two types of entries – one, about the service matters like the date of joining, increment, leaves etc. and two, about the personal issues like the details of the family etc.