Bangalore Mirror: Bangalore: Saturday,
March 18, 2017.
The office
revealed this before the state information commission during a hearing, and the
candid admission came after over two years of denying the information and a
fine of Rs 10,000.
The case
pertains to information activist S Bhaskaran sought. The activist initially
sought information from the chief electoral officer (CEO), Karnataka, in
February, 2014. Through two applications, he sought certified copies of papers
and documents filed by energy minister DK Shivakumar at the time of filing his
nominations for the Kanakapura assembly seat during the 2008 and 2013
elections. He needed the information, Bhaskaran told Bangalore Mirror, to
assess the growth of assets the minister had declared five years apart.
After the
information was not provided, Bhaskaran filed an appeal in March 2014 before
the first appellate authority, office of CEO, Karnataka. His applications had
then been transferred to Ramanagara deputy commissioner, from where it was
transferred to the Kanakapura tahsildar office.
When the
required information was still not provided, he filed a second appeal before
the state information commission in July 2014. Even after the commission took
up the case, no information was provided. Repeated denials resulted in the
commission levying a penalty of Rs 10,000 on the PIO of the Kanakapura
tahsildar office.
After all of
this, and two years of delay that saw six hearings over the issue between May
2016 and March 2017 came the final admission recently. The tahsildar’s office
provided the energy minister’s affidavit filed in 2013, but said it doesn’t
have the 2008 papers. It also filed an affidavit to the effect.
“This is both
a surprise and a shock as one can’t understand how important records like
electoral documents can go missing. For two years they delayed. Denial and
delay give rise to suspicion if at the end of it, the documents are said to
have gone missing. Posting the poll papers on the website would have made the
job easy for the CEO’s office. Now that they have filed an affidavit stating
that they do not have the papers, the issue on how vital documents can go
missing and fixing responsibility on officials responsible will be legally
pursued,” S Bhaskaran said.
Bhaskaran
maintained that along with the DC’s office, he would initiate action against
the erring officials under the Public Records Act as the lost papers are an
important public document.
“Filing an
affidavit ‘not found’ should not be an escape route from the RTI Act. Hence as
they themselves have admitted the lapse, I will seek action against whoever is
responsible,” he said.