Recruitment to the post of Scientist B and Scientific/ Technical Assistant A by NIELIT - CIC: Reply incomplete as no exemption clause claimed u/s 8 - CIC: Guidelines & instructions issued for conduct of an examination and cannot be termed as confidential
12 Aug, 2022Information Sought
The appellant has made a reference to Advt No. NIELIT/NIC/2020/1 for recruitment to the post of Scientist B and Scientific/ Technical Assistant A, for which examination was held on 22/11/2020. In the said context, the appellant has sought the following information:
1. Provide a copy of the guidelines issued for conduct of the said examination.
2. Provide a copy of the instructions issued to the staff of the examination Centre such as Security Guards, Invigilators and other related staff.
Grounds for filing Second Appeal
The CPIO did not provide the desired information.
Submissions made by Appellant and Respondent during Hearing:
The appellant submitted that the CPIO and the FAA both had incorrectly denied the information while quoting Section 8 of the RTI Act. The CPIO submitted that an appropriate reply was given to the appellant on 22.12.2020.
Observations:
From a perusal of the relevant case records, it is noted that the reply of the CPIO and the order of the FAA, both are incomplete as they had failed to claim any proper exemption clause u/s 8 of the RTI Act. It is further noted that the information sought by the appellant is general in nature seeking guidelines and instructions issued for conduct of an examination and cannot be termed as confidential information. However, since a proper reply was not given to the appellant, the CPIO is directed to provide a revised reply to the appellant claiming proper exemption and justifying the same. The CPIO should note that in case he is not able to claim any exemption with proper justification, complete information should be provided to the appellant.
Decision:
In view of the above, the CPIO, NEILIT, Calicut is directed to provide a revised reply to the appellant as per the discussions held during the hearing within a period of 15 days from the date of receipt of this order under intimation to the Commission.
The appeals are disposed of accordingly.
Vanaja N. Sarna
Information Commissioner
Citation: Anchit Jindal v. National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) in File No. CIC/NIELT/A/2021/615851+ CIC/NIELT/A/2021/119034, Date of Decision: 21/07/2022