Deccan
Chronicle: Kochi: Sunday, 26 April 2015.
In what could
be termed as a double-edged sword, the state has issued a circular asking
public information officers not to reject RTI applications unless the file is
officially destroyed and keep a file
retention schedule.
The circular
issued by Mr P.S. Gopakumar, special secretary to the government, has urged all
public sector units and autonomous institutions to formulate a record retention
schedule and ensure that the records are
destroyed only in accordance with such stipulation and also publish the same on the official website of
public authorities.
“The public
authority has a duty to initiate action for this kind of loss of public record.
Every public authority should prescribe the record retention schedule and any
destruction of the file shall be under competent administrative level with
record showing that the file has been destroyed on the expiry of the retention
period,” the circular said.
With
this, the practice of officials helping
persons with vested interests to destroy a file can be curbed.
The circular
was issued pursuant to a Central Information Commission directive to declare
that the missing or the untraceability of the file containing the information
sought for cannot be deemed as a valid exemption by the RTI Act.
The
commission asked the state to issue such a circular after the Delhi High Court
held that rejecting files in the guise of ‘missing file’ tended to discourage
the very objective of the RTI Act.
As per the
latest circular, those who violate the norm would be punishable with
imprisonment up to five years or with fine or both. Unless proved that the
record was destroyed as per the prescribed rules of destruction/retention
policy, it is deemed that the record
continues to be held by the public authority.