Taking up the issue of appointment of wrong person on compassionate ground
28 Jun, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) seeking information pertaining to compassionate appointment in respect of a particular person (one Shri Abdul Rehman), whom the appellant alleged is an imposter. The Public Information Officer (PIO) denied the information that the information sought is third party information which is exempt under section 8(1)(j) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information: Provided that the information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person. Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information: Provided that the information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person. of the RTI Act. In respect of remaining points, the PIO held that these were in the nature of allegations and not within the definition of information as per section 2(f) “information” means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force; of the RTI Act.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the PIO reiterated that the information sought is third party information which is exempt under section 8(1)(j) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information: Provided that the information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person. Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information: Provided that the information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person. of the RTI Act. The appellant alleged that Shri Abdul Rehman was wrongly employed by ECL on compassionate grounds in place of Motijan Bibi, his late mother. The appellant stated that a wrong person was appointed while the son of the lady is alive who was denied opportunity of getting employment on compassionate grounds. The appellant also added that the case of the son was deferred on the grounds of under-age when he applied for appointment on compassionate grounds. He did not receive any response from ECL and in the meantime another person with same name (Abdul Rehman) was appointed who has subsequently expired. The respondent stated that the entire subject matter of information is based on allegations and the appellant has attempted to enquire into the allegation by using the platform of RTI. The PIO expressed his inability to examine such allegation.
View of CIC
The Commission held that the fact pertains to allegations of procedural irregularities in appointment for which the appellant was advised to approach the competent authority for corrective measures. Regarding the documents, the Commission directed the PIO to provide the appellant with all the appointment papers/ records in respect of the person who was appointed by ECL and had subsequently expired.
Citation: Mr. Khurshid Alam v. Eastern Coalfields Ltd in Case No. CIC/SS/A/2012/001370
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1401
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission