Book officials responsible for missing govt files: High Court

The Asian Age: Mumbai: Monday, 02 March 2015.

The Bombay high court has ordered registration of FIR against government officials who refused to furnish information under the RTI on the grounds of missing files. The HC has directed the deputy secretary of urban development department to lodge a police complaint against the concerned officers.

A division bench of the HC further directed that after filing the FIR, the investigation must be completed within six months and it should be headed by an officer not below the rank of deputy commissioner of police (DCP).

Justice Abhay Oka and Justice A.S. Gadkari imposed fines of Rs 15,000 on the state government for the lapse on part of officers that led to a UDD file going ‘missing’. As a result, information under RTI Act could not be provided to an advocate.

“The case in hand is a classic example as to how the government officers protecting their fellow officers tend to frustrate the basic intention of the legislature behind the enactment of the Right to Information Act, 2005,” said the judges in their order last week. The HC was hearing a petition filed by Sangli-based advocate Vivek Vishnupant Kulkarni (58), who is also an office- bearer of Swatantraya Veer Savarkar Pratishthan, a voluntary group which runs two schools.

The petitioner filed an application on September 5, 2008, with the Section and Information Officer of UDD seeking information under RTI in respect of a Government Resolution (GR) dated August 21, 1996. The resolution pertained to release of various lands in and around Sangli city that were acquired by the government under the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976. He sought information about the documents on the basis of which the GR was issued. In a communication dated September 22, 2008, the UDD information officer told Mr Kulkarni the required information sought by him was not available on the department’s record.

Dissatisfied by the inaction, the petitioner filed an appeal on November 27, 2008, before the deputy secretary of UDD, who is the first appellate authority, but was told that the information was not available with the information officer.

Mr Kulkarni then filed a second appeal on June 15, 2009, before the Pune bench of state information commission. The August 18, 2011 judgement of the second appellate authority noted that Suresh Kakani, joint secretary, government of Maharashtra, had expressed inability to comply with the direction to provide information to the petitioner in view of the missing file.

The HC bench then noted that it was mandatory for officers concerned to set criminal law in motion and find out the culprits responsible for the missing file.
(Pl click for Judgement)