Bangalore Mirror: Bangalore: Friday, May 26, 2017.
Police
department fined Rs 10,000 for not complying with the Karnataka Information
Commission’s order to release answer sheets of an aspirant sub-inspector.
Karnataka
Information Commission (KIC) has slapped a penalty of Rs10,000 on an SP
(recruitment and training) police department for denying an aspirant for the
sub-inspector (SI) post his answer sheets. With this comes the good news that a
candidate appearing in any recruitment exam is entitled to get his answer
sheets under RTI. The commission’s action comes after police’s denial despite
repeated directives, including one citing a supreme court case.
The curious
case, which has witnessed a spat between KIC and the recruitment and training
wing of the department, has ended in later losing their case to the aspirant
before the information commission.
Raghavendra
N, who had taken the exams for SI in 2014, had sought his answer sheets bearing
roll number 5540803 (application number 2746031) in November 2015. It had been
turned down by Public Information Officer (PIO), an SP-ranking officer with the
recruitment and training wing. The matter had then reached KIC, which heard it
thrice before passing the penalty order on May 17.
For first
time in February 2017, the commission had come down heavily against the department’s
denial of information to Raghavendra citing section 8 (1) (J) of the RTI Act
which exempts disclosure of personal information that is not related to any
public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the
privacy of the individual. The police’s recruitment and training wing brass –
ADGP Raghav-endra Auradkar and DIG Vipul Kumar had taken a stand to this extent
after concluding that issuance of information may lead to misuse and delay in
recruitment, and had said the stand was in public interest.
However,
ruling against this, the commission had stated that it was of emphatic view
that the answer sheet could be disclosed. State information commissioner NP
Ramesh had gone a step ahead and had set a deadline of 7 days directing the PIO
and superintendent of police to provide information by February 7.
But the
police neither provided the information nor attended the next hearing on May 9.
Taking a serious note, and citing that the SP was deliberately denying
information, the commission had come down against the police brass on May 9,
once again setting an 8-day deadline to provide the information.
Saying there
could not be distinction between the answer script of an academic examination
and recruitment test, KIC had ordered the department to provide information
within eight days.
Meanwhile,
the police department moving the high court had challenged the KIC order. With
no information even after eight days, and denial despite repeated orders, the
commission has now levied a penalty of Rs10,000 directing the PIO to provide
information immediately. Further denial may lead to a recommendation of
departmental inquiry, a KIC source maintained.
“The judgment
adds transparency to the recruitment process,” Veeresh BH, Raghav-endra’s representative,
said.
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