Seeking attendance recorded through Biometric attendance device under RTI
24 Nov, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Export Inspection Council (EIC) of India seeking information of the Biometric attendance device from date of its installation and ID card attendance device from date of its installation till date, recorded in a CD. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed the appellant that providing the sought information in CD is amicable to tempering and therefore not feasible in soft copy. Further, the appellant was informed that EIA-Delhi has issued a memorandum regarding his attendance on certain dates when he had neither signed the attendance register nor recorded his attendance through Access Control Machine and subsequently a reminder was issued calling his explanation on the aforesaid memorandum. The appellant had submitted his comments to EIA-Delhi which is under process of investigation. The information was denied under the provisions of section 8(1)(h) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders; of the RTI Act.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant submitted that providing the sought information in CD form will not temper the records as they are being electronically stored and if so then the system is faulty which requires repair or replacement.
View of CIC
The Commission observed that the information sought by the appellant was disclosable under RTI Act and directed the PIO to provide Biometric attendance of the employees in CD form to the appellant.
Comment
As per section 2 (j), the "right to information" means the right to information accessible under this Act which is held by or under the control of any public authority and includes the right to—
(i) inspection of work, documents, records;
(ii) taking notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records;
(iii) taking certified samples of material;
(iv) obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through printouts where such information is stored in a computer or in any other device.
Citation: Mr. Praveen Sakhuja v. Export Inspection Council of India in Case No. CIC/SS/A/2012/0001170
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/820
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission