Deliberate obstruction, delay in furnishing info under RTI Act
FAAs don’t adjudicate First Appeals in stipulated timeframe
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 13: Central Information Commission (CIC) has sought explanation from Deputy Director, Manager (Personnel) and two more officers of Jammu and Kashmir Government for causing deliberate obstruction and delay in the dissemination of information sought under Right to Information Act, 2005.
Moreover, during the proceedings before the CIC it came to the fore that in most of the cases the First Appellate Authorities (FAAs) don’t adjudicate the First Appeals well within the stipulated time-frame leading to filing of Second Appeals.
As per the case before the Central Information Commission, an RTI application was filed before PIO in the Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) on September 25, 2020 seeking information about allotment of land to the transporters at Parimpora. However, neither reply was furnished to the information seeker nor First Appeal dated May 9, 2022 was adjudicated by the First Appellate Authority (FAA).
Accordingly, the information seeker approached the Commission with the Second Appeal and during the course of hearing the appellant submitted that he has received only one letter dated May 18, 2022 from the respondent, which is after almost two years from the date of filing of RTI application.
However, respondent represented by Showkat Ahmad Mattoo, PIO and Deputy Director (Land Management) submitted that no reply qua the RTI application has been given to the appellant by the then PIO Syed Tawqeer Showkat, Senior Estate Officer Srinagar, who has now retired from the service. He further added that Mantisha Bin Rasheed, Secretary has taken the charge as PIO and now she has been transferred to another office.
Upon perusal of the facts on record as well as on the basis of the proceedings during the hearing, Chief Information Commissioner Y K Sinha observed, “Showkat Ahmad Mattoo, PIO and Deputy Director (Land Management) has not provided any reply/information to the appellant even after receiving hearing notice from the Commission”.
Admonishing the then PIO and president PIO and Deputy Director (Land Management) for not providing relevant information to the appellant, the Commission has issued show-cause notice to Deputy Director under Section 20 of the RTI Act seeking explanation as to why maximum penalty to the tune of Rs 25,000 should not be imposed upon him for casing deliberate obstruction in the dissemination of information thereby violating provisions of the RTI Act.
The officer has further been directed to ensure that complete information as sought by the appellant as permissible under the RTI Act is supplied to him within three weeks.
As per the another case, RTI application was filed on May 25, 2022 before the PIO Jammu and Kashmir Handicrafts (S&E) Corporation Limited seeking information about the release of salary of staff posted in the head office of the Corporation.
However, even after making payment of Rs 200 on account of Photostat and other charges of the documents, no information was furnished to the applicant and even First Appeal remained un-adjudicated. This led to filing of Second Appeal before the Central Information Commission.
Pointing towards the submission of Bashir Ahmed Sheikh, Manager (Personnel) that point-wise information was furnished to the applicant, the Chief Information Commissioner observed, “there has been substantial delay in providing the information to the complainant despite payment of the desired fee”, adding “instead of addressing the grievances of the complainant regarding payment of his outstanding dues, the PIO directed him to pay Photostat charges without specifying the number of pages and nature of documents”.
Accordingly, the Commission has directed Manager (Personnel) of the Corporation to explain why penal action should not be initiated against him under Section 20(1) and (2) of the RTI Act.
Similarly, explanation has been sought from Showkat Mattoo, CPIO in the Srinagar Development Authority for not providing information to the applicant within the stipulated time period. “While the information has been provided to the appellant, there has been substantial delay in doing so which is in contravention to the provisions of the RTI Act”, the Chief Information Commissioner said.
Likewise, the Central Information Commission has sought explanation from Sanjeev Sharma, PIO in the office of Transport Commissioner for not providing information within the stipulated time-frame to the applicant with the observation: “There has been substantial delay in providing information in contravention to the provisions of the RTI Act”.
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