Economic Times: New Delhi: Tuesday, June 13, 2017.
The Central
Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Reserve Bank of India to depute a
nodal officer for handling all RTI requests.
The
commission rejected the RBI's arrangement in which an applicant was supposed to
address his application to the specific department which might have been
holding that information.
Activist
Subhash Agrawal had sought information about printing of Re one note, which was
returned saying it was not addressed to the right Central Public Information
Officer (CPIO).
Under the
Right to Information Act, public authorities can depute multiple officers to
handle RTI requests. The Act asks these officers to provide information to the
applicants.
Several
departments have deputed these officers to look specific departments but they
cannot reject the application on the grounds that it was not addressed to the
right officer. It is their duty to transfer the application to the correct
officer.
Agrawal
approached the CIC with a prayer seeking direction to the RBI to nominate a
nodal CPIO so that even if an RTI application is not addressed to the CPIO of a
particular department of the respondents, it is directed by the nodal CPIO to
the concerned department(s) and is not returned to the RTI applicant.
We do not
agree with the current practice of the respondents that all the RTI
applications should be filed to the CPIOs of their specific departments,
information concerning whom is available on their website," Information
Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal said.
He said
information can be sought by applicants on various issues and in many cases,
the applicants may not be clear about the department of the respondents, in
which the information would be available.
"In any
case, a public authority should not return an RTI application merely on the
grounds that it is not addressed to a specific CPIO but only to 'CPIO',"
he said.
Sabharwal
directed the RBI to appoint a nodal CPIO or designate one of the existing CPIOs
as the nodal CPIO and give wide publicity to his name, designation and address.