The Tribune: Chandigarh: Saturday,
April 22, 2017.
More than 500
applications moved under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by a ‘habitual’
Ludhiana-based activist have irked the State Information Commission (SIC) to an
extent that it has directed the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, to ignore the
RTI queries by the applicant, who is “running riot by filing repeated
applications seeking inane information.”
Delivering an
unusual order, the commission observed that RTI activism of this man had
“drastically hampered” the routine work of the MC, Ludhiana, as a large number
of employees and officials remained busy either in dealing with his RTI queries
or to prepare replies in response to appeals filed by him to appellate
authorities.
Otherwise
mandated to facilitate information to RTI applicants, the commission took the
decision today while hearing cases pertaining to RTI applications filed by
Amarjit Singh Dhamotia of Ludhiana, who has filed more than 500 applications
under the RTI Act.
While
disposing of pleas filed by Dhamotia, State Information Commissioner Yashvir
Mahajan observed, “The duty of the commission is to see that such blatant
misuse of the RTI Act should not be allowed further and such situation needs to
be appropriately dealt with to secure the faith of the public in the ‘sunshine
Act’ and remove obstacles in functioning of public authority, which would
eventually prevent public authority from focusing on transparency.”
The SIC
further observed, “the applicant’s act of running riot by filing repeated
applications seeking inane and voluminous information has become
counter-productive of public interest. The commission cannot allow such fishing
operations of the appellant. We see his act as misuse rather abuse of the RTI
Act with unsavoury motives. The commission accordingly disposes of all appeals
in hand in terms of Section 7 (9) of the RTI Act and allows the public
authority to ignore his applications in future.”
It was held
that the RTI applications filed by the person had drastically hampered the
routine work of the MC, Ludhiana. The SIC said many MC officers were all day
busy in dealing with his RTI queries, whereas other officers had to visit the
SIC to file reply in the commission on the appeals filed by Dhamotia.
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