Wilful Delay in Providing RTI Reply
SIC imposes Rs 25,000 Penalty on an Executive Engineer on Activist’s
Complaint
JAMMU,
15/Dec/2013: Going tough against the delinquent officers for defying Right to
Information Act, in a significant judgement the Jammu and Kashmir State
Information Commission (SIC) has imposed a maximum penalty of Rs. 25,000 on a
senior officer. Commission has imposed penalty on an Executive Engineer V.K. Bhagat, the then Public Information
Officer and Technical Officer to Chief
Engineer of P.H.E, Jammu who is presently
posted as Executive Engineer, Power
Development Corporation office. As Per order the officer has been penalised for
wilful delay of information to an
information-seeker under the provisions of Right to Information Act, 2009.
The Penalty
proceedings are initiated against the officer on the complaint (u/s 15 J &
K RTI Act 2009) of RTI activist Raman
Sharma who in his complaint alleged that he had not received information from
PIO even after long elapse of due time period. Earlier Raman had sought details
of RTI applications received by PHE department, list of their disposal and
pending, but the PIO failed to provide the information to the complainant Raman
Sharma and even ceased his right to file appeal before the 1st
appellate authority thus compelled the applicant to file the complaint before
the J & K State Information Commission. The commission during the course of
hearing the petition had sought reply from PIO of the delay and in letter no
PHE/PS/1180, the PIO failed to substantiate the grounds for delay in providing
information to the applicant. Now in its decision No SIC-J-C-93/2012/384, S.K
Sharma, State Information Commissioner observed "The delay caused by the
PIO in furnishing the information to the information seeker is unreasonable and
without any sufficient cause and as such he deserves to be penalized u/s 17 of
the J&K RTI Act, 2009. The penalty to be imposed on the PIO is calculated
as (ii) Date of application u/s 6 of the J&K RTI Act 2009 for seeking
information is 17.11.2011. (ii) due date of passing order by PIO u/s 7 is
16.12.2011 (ii) Information provided to the information seeker on 23.7.2012
(iii) Delay in furnishing the information (No of days) 215 (V) Penalty to be
imposed for each day is Rs 250/- 215 days X Rs 250 and amount goes to Rs
53,750. The total amount of such penalty shall not exceed Rs 25000 u/s 17 clause(1)
under J&K RTI Act, 2009. Therefore an amount of Rs 25,000 is imposed as
penalty."The Commission further ordered as "the Drawing and
Disbursing Officer in the office of Chief Engineer, P.H.E, Jammu will ensure
deduction of Rs 25,000 from the salary of V.K. Bhagat the then PIO/Technical
Officer to the Chief Engineer P.H.E Jammu at present Executive Engineer, P.D.C
Office, Trikuta Nagar, Jammu in five equal instalments and remit it to the
Government Account with an intimation to this Commission. In case of any
default committed by the DDO in this regard, he, will be personally liable for
making the payment towards the Government Account. The order has to be complied
within 15 days from the date of receipt of the order."
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Published in Kashmir Times, Early Times, State Times, Greater Kashmir, Tribune, JK Newspoint and other dailies on 16/Dec/2013.
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