Times
of India: New Delhi: Sunday, 26 October 2014.
Information
commissioners across the country are using a light touch to tackle RTI
complaints sparing imposition of penalty in over 96% of the cases according to
an independent study.
Penalties
have been imposed in just 3870 or 3.72% of the cases between January 2012 to
December 2013 in 21 information commissions across the country. Activists say
that commissions are turning a blind eye to delays or complete denial of
information which can sound the death knell for implementation of the RTI act.
There are
three million RTIs filed every year but only a fraction reach up to the level
of appeal. The RaaG-NCPRI study on the RTI act reveals that between January
2012 to December 2013 3.89 lakh complaints and appeals were received by the
Central Information Commission and 25 information commissions. Of these 3.06
lakh or 79% were disposed off.
Based on RTI
responses from 21 information commissions, the study found that 2.21 lakh cases
had been disposed of between January 2012 to November 2013. Analysis of orders
suggests that penalty should have been imposed on 1.04 lakh cases but in fact
information commissions imposed it only on 3870 cases. The quantum of penalty
imposed was about Rs 5.03 crore in 22 states. Shockingly only Rs 85.57 lakh was
recovered by 18 states.
Maharashtra
imposed penalty in the maximum number of cases (844) while the quantum of
penalty Rs 1.27 crore was the highest in Karnataka. Madhya Pradesh imposed
penalty only in two cases, Tripura in one case while West Bengal's information
commission was equally generous imposing penalty in just three cases.
Commissions can impose Rs 250 per day as penalty up to a maximum of Rs 25,000.
Information
commissions are also empowered to award compensation to a complainant for the
loss suffered. Despite the large percentage of appeals and complaints that
result in wrongful denial or delay in providing information compensation has
been awarded in only 1339 cases. The amount of compensation imposed was Rs
29.68 lakh of which only about Rs 4.07 lakh was recovered. Karnataka and
Haryana information commissions awarded the highest amount of compensation Rs
7.69 lakh and Rs 7.50 lakh.