Press Trust of India: Chandigarh: Friday, June 30, 2017.
The Haryana
information commission has advised Additional Chief Secretary to take
"appropriate action" against an official of state Wakf board Ambala
for showing "total disregard and apathy to the spirit of the RTI Act,
2005."
In its order
delivered on June 20, HSIC Prahlad Rai Meena, a retired IPS officer, said
"Ram Niwas, Additional Chief Secretary (Jail and Judicial Branch) is
advised to take appropriate action against Imtiyaz Khizar, First Appellate
Authority at the office of Haryana Wakf Board, Ambala, who had shown total
disregard and apathy to the spirit of the RTI Act, 2005, at his end."
The order was
given during the hearing of second appeal filed by Gurgaon-based RTI activist
Harinder Dhingra.
Dhingra in
May last year had sought district wise information from the Wakf board
regarding details of the land that was in its possession.
Dhingra's RTI
application was transferred to all districts of the state by Ambala State
Public Information Officer (SPIO) R L Saini for the information to be directly
provided to Dhingra by the districts, Meena observed.
However, on
the orders of Khizar, the then ASPIO R U Siddaqqui of the department asked all
districts to send the information back to the headquarters than giving it
directly to Dhingra, the order says.
On Dhingra's
first appeal, Khizar, the first appellate authority, denied information to him,
Meena noted.
On the second
appeal by Dhingra, the HSIC found that Saini and Siddaqqui were only abiding to
the orders of first appellate authority.
In its order,
the HSIC also asked the SPIO to keep entire record pertaining to RTI
applications in his personal custody and not hand over to any of the authority
except Ram Niwas, who is looking after the affairs of the Haryana Wakf Board,
Ambala on behalf of Government of Haryana.
The
Commission observed that there was no initial delay on the part of Saini as he
had transferred RTI application under section 6(3) of the RTI Act, 2005 to all
the SPIOs of the districts through his letter dated May 2, 2016.
The
Commission further observed that Siddaqqui, the then ASPIO Haryana Wakf Board,
Ambala had also acted on the verbal directions given by the First Appellate
Authority (Khizar).
The
Commission, has also observed that SPIO and the then ASPIO both have acted upon
the directions of the first appellate authority, who had intervened in the
matter, prior to deciding the first appeal.
"Commission
is therefore, convinced that in the instant case, both respondents were not
allowed to exercise their wisdom as per the spirit of the RTI Act, 2005,"
Meena observed.
The
Commission further observed that respondents present before it were thus bound
by discipline of the hierarchy of the service.
"Commission
is aware of the fact that appellant had sought information from one SPIO, which
was scattered to all the twenty one SPIOs of the State and all the SPIOs except
seven SPIOs have provided information, directly," Meena observed.
"Commission
is further aware of the constraints and limitation of junior officers, when
their seniors interfere with their working with ulterior motive with a view to
defeat very purpose of transparency which is cardinal part of RTI Act, 2005,
hence for the sake of the plea of the respondent, they cannot be penalised for
no fault of theirs," he observed.
Commission
has taken an adverse view of the acts of the first appellate authority, who had
not only interfered with the independent functioning of the SPIO but also gone
out of way to deny information, which has defeated the very purpose of the RTI
Act, 2005.
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