Violation of RTI Act: UT designates Registrar (Colleges) as first appellate authority.

Indian Express: Chandigadh: Saturday, August 29, 2015. 

In a violation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act which says that the first appellate authority should be a senior officer in rank to the Central Public Information Officers (CPIO), the UT Education Department recently issued a circular designating the Registrar Education (Colleges) as the first appellate authority. 

The circular reads, “In pursuance of the Chandigarh Administration, department of Personnel letter regarding Enactment/ Enforcement of Right of Information Act, 2005, orders to designate Appellate Authority, Central Public Information Officers and Central Assistant Public Information Officers and Central Assistant Public Information Officers for Higher Education Department were issued.” 

It has been further written, “In accordance with provision contained under Section 5 and 19 of the said Act, the officers/officials are designated as Appellate Authority, CPIO to disseminate information in respect of office of DHE, government colleges and institutes.” - 

H C Arora, advocate, Punjab and Haryana High Court, and an RTI Activist, commenting on this, said, “The first appellate authority should be a senior person to whom the CPIOs can file appeals. If the registrar has been made the appellate authority, it is a violation of the RTI Act.” 

However, as per the official website of the Chandigarh Administration, the Director Higher Education (DHE) is the first appellate authority to disseminate the information in respect of the office of Director Higher Education, government colleges and institutes. 

The website also mentions the Registrar (Colleges) as the CPIO. Registrar(Colleges) Arjun Dev was earlier the CPIO (Colleges) and has been now designated as the appellate authority. The orders were passed by former DPI (Schools) and Director Higher Education Kamlesh Kumar Bhadoo. 

Sources said the Registrar (Colleges) falls under the category of Pay Band 3 of Rs 15600-Rs 39,100, while the current CPIOs and principals of the government colleges are under the Pay Band 4 of Rs 37,400-Rs 67,000, with an Academic Grade Pay (AGP) of Rs 10,000. Thus, the Registrar (Colleges) is a sub-ordinate to the college principals and is not eligible to be designated as the first appellate authority.