What happens to the representations made by the public to the PMO?
10 Dec, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) seeking information concerning the drafting of the Lokpal Bill and the action taken on the suggestions he and other members of the public had sent from time to time. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided information available in material form to appellant.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant submitted that one of the replies sent by the PIO of the DoPT had not reached him. He requested that this should be sent to him again. The respondents clarified that various representations, complaints, suggestions and other communications received from the public were usually processed in the PMO at the official level and forwarded to various Ministries and Departments for any further action. All such communications were not put up to the Prime Minister for his personal perusal. They also clarified that there was no mandatory requirement for consultation with the members of the public prior to the formulation of any bill and that any such decision in the drafting of any particular bill was taken on a case to case basis.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that the submissions made by the respondent during the hearing would remove some of the doubts of the appellant in the case. The Commission also directed the PIO, DoPT to once again send the reply to the appellant that did not reach him before.
Citation: Mr. Prinsu v. Prime Minister’s Office and Department of Personnel & Training in File No. CIC/SM/A/2012/000361
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/858
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission