Moneylife: New Delhi: Friday, July 28, 2017.
The Central
Information Commission (CIC) has slapped a penalty of Rs25,000 each on three
officers at the National Commission for Women (NCW) and asked it pay a
compensation of Rs50,000 to the appellant for not providing information under
the Right to Information (RTI) Act and for failing to take action against
erring officials.
Despite a
show-cause notice from the CIC, the NCW has not provided information or taken
action against the officer.
Last week,
Moneylife had highlighted the plight of an RTI applicant, working until
recently as Research Assistant Officer at NCW, who was allegedly harassed by
her senior colleague, Deputy Secretary VVB Raju, who incidentally is also the
First Appellate Authority under the RTI Act in the NCW. (Read: Appellate
Authority at NCW is accused of sexual harassment. Is there any hope for the
victim?)
The RTI
applicant, an alleged victim of sexual harassment, had sought file notings,
correspondence regarding extension (or non-extension) of contract of her
employment, inquiry report instituted against Mr Raju, statements of witnesses,
action taken on report, amongst the 16 points of information. As per Section 7
(1) of the RTI Act, 2005, the CPIO was to give the requested information within
48 Hours of the application, However, no information was received. Nor was it
given even after 30 days, under Section 6 of the RTI Act.
In his order
on 20 June 2017, Professor M Sridhar Acharyulu, Central Information
Commissioner, noted that when Raju met the RTI applicant, she should have been
allowed to inspect the files. He said, “It is not known why NCW office was
acting totally against the rights of the appellant and there was not an iota of
effort to address her grievance or complaint or problem and why the RTI wing of
the NCW has totally blocked the access to information to the appellant. And
above all the Member Secretary is silent on her complaint.”
Mr Acharyulu
has also asked the NCW to give a “token compensation” of Rs50,000 within 15
days. He states, “For the harassment caused by denial and victimising her
further for filing complaints and RTI requests, she has to be compensated and
provided with the costs, without any prejudice to her right to claim damages
under Torts law. She was denied information for more than six months. Till
today complete information was not given. It is difficult to calculate exact
loss she suffered at the hands of various officers. Hence the Commission awards
a token compensation of Rs50,000 and directs the public authority to pay
Rs50,000 to the appellant-victim, within 15 days from date of receipt of this
order.”
Besides, the
CIC has imposed a penalty of Rs25,000 on Mr Raju, to be paid in five monthly instalments. The CIC has
directed the member secretary of NCW to recover this amount from Raju’s salary.
NCW’s former CPIO, G Nagarajan, has been slapped with a penalty of Rs25,000 for
non-compliance. The present CPIO (Raju again) has additionally been punished
with Rs25,000 penalty.
The CIC also
mentioned that the National Commission for Women’s workplace had an “unhealthy
environment”.”
The CIC
observed that the National Commission for Women has a Constitutional duty to
explain reasons for breach of two statutes on sexual harassment and Right to Information
in the present case.
The appeal is
posted for hearing on 28 August.