Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 3: State Information Commission today said that it would not allow use of Right to Information Act for personal vendetta or some other oblique considerations and action as warranted under the law would be taken against the erring information seekers.
This was made clear by the State Information Commissioner, Dr S K Sharma while dismissing an appeal filed by Dr Amit Sharma, who has allegedly filed around 80 RTI applications from time to time seeking information about the officers, faculty and non-teaching staff of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University particularly its Registrar Ajay Khajuria.
“The basic premise of the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009 is to establish a regime of Right to Information for the people of the State so that they can have access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority”, the Information Commissioner observed.
“One of the objectives of the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009 is to contain corruption and to hold Government and its instrumentalities accountable. It becomes the sacred duty of the Commission to ensure that the ideals enshrined in the preamble of the Act are strictly followed by public authorities in order to promote transparency and accountability”, Dr S K Sharma said.
He further said that preamble of the Act also imposes a duty upon the State Information Commission that the process, practice and procedure of the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009 is not misused and abused by mischief mongers, who file multiple RTI applications with the sole intention to harrass the public authorities in order to extort money or out of personal vendetta.
“The pyramid on which the epitomes/ideals enshrined in the preamble of Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009 stand is that the information seeker should be personally aggrieved about the information which he requires or he should be a public spirited person whose bonafides cannot be questioned because he fights for a public cause”, the Information Commissioner said.
“If an applicant is acting for a personal gain or private profit or out of sheer political motivation or personal vendetta or some other oblique considerations and is using the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009 not to contain corruption or promote transparency and accountability, in the functioning of public authorities but for personal gains, the Commission would not allow itself to be activised at the instance of such information seekers and must reject the appeal/complaint at the very threshold”, he further said.
Stating that Commission would not allow a person to abuse the legal process mandated in the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, Dr S K Sharma said, “the Act is a weapon in the hands of a common man, to be used with great care and circumspection and Commission has to act as a watchdog to see that behind the beautiful veil of larger public interest an ugly private interest, vested interest or publicity seeking interest is not lurking”.
The Commission directed the Registrar, SMVD University to file the details of multiple RTI applications filed by the information seeker in the form of a formal complaint within one week for further appropriate action in the matter.
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