Pune Mirror: Pune: Sunday, June 10, 2018.
Commission
charges him with scotching a faculty member’s RTI query in 2013 on selective
age relaxation while hiring faculty members.
The principal
of the National Defence Academy (NDA) OP Shukla is in trouble yet again. In a
recent order, the chief information commission (CIC) has pulled up Shukla for
his ‘highhandedness in official dealings’ and ‘apparent misuse of position and
power’. Shukla hogged the limelight recently when he, along with other faculty
members, was booked by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for submitting
forged documents to get employed in the NDA.
In the recent
development that would further besmirch his image, Shukla has been accused of
asking one of his faculty members to withdraw her application seeking
information under the Right to Information Act (RTI). The case pertains to
October 2013 when Tarannum Bano, a faculty member of the NDA, sought details of
selective age relaxation applied while hiring assistant professors.
The application
was sent to Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS), Ministry of
Defence, which recruits the faculty for the NDA. The details sought by Bano, if
responded to, would have exposed lapses in hiring the faculty at NDA, a charge
that has now been levelled by CBI against several members including the
principal, Shukla.
Bano was made
to run from pillar to post for the information. The public information officer
did not give her the information. When she filed an appeal, no order was passed
either. She was told that her original application was never received. When she
sent a copy, she was questioned on her move. She was also asked to produce
details of the original application by an official at the HQ IDS.
As if that
wasn’t enough, a letter stating that Bano wishes to withdraw her application
seeking the information under RTI was also faxed to HQ IDS by Shukla, thereby
slamming a lid on the can of worms.
Bano filed a
complaint with the CIC in 2014. Over the next four years, CIC heard the matter
in detail. Recently, Information Commissioner Divya Prakash Sharma, passed a
detailed order admonishing Shukla. “In view of unwarranted intervention of O P
Shukla, principal, NDA, as detailed in above proceedings, the commission
severely admonishes O P Shukla, principal, NDA, as the instant case has brought
out significant aspects of his high-handedness in official dealings. It is also
a glaring instance of apparent misuse of position and power, so much so that O
P Shukla, principal, NDA, interfered with a citizen’s right to information
merely by virtue of the said citizen being subordinate to him under service
rules at the relevant time. The said interference is akin to interfering with a
citizen’s constitutional right to freedom. Commandant, National Defence Academy
will ensure that the instant order is served upon the concerned initiating
authority for incorporating the above adverse remarks of the commission in the
APAR (annual performance appraisal report) 2018-19 of O P Shukla, principal,
NDA,” states the order.
The
commission observed that Shukla and others at HQ IDS had colluded to harass
Bano. They also took a serious note of Shukla sending Bano’s application
withdrawal letter to HQ IDS. Bano had alleged that after she sought the
information, Shukla called her to his office and asked her to withdraw the RTI
application, failing which she would be terminated from service at the NDA.
Bano claimed that she had only made a draft of the withdrawal letter after the
conversation with Shukla. Eventually, the letter went missing and she found out
that it made its way to HQ IDS, thereby closing her request for information.
Responding to
the allegations, Shukla had told the commission that he faxed the withdrawal
letter to HQ IDS only on Bano’s insistence and as ‘part of his duty as
principal, NDA’. He claimed that Bano had approached his personal assistant and
sought his appointment. He met her in the presence of the NDA registrar and she
insisted that her letter should be sent to HQ IDS. He subsequently faxed the
letter.
Bano
rubbished this story put forth by Shukla. She told the commission that the
principal harassed her to withdraw the RTI application by showing her a
termination letter and compelling her to write the withdrawal letter. She also
told the commission that considering her original application was sent through
post, and that the post office was barely half a kilometre away, why would she
go to the principal to send a withdrawal letter. “She has also remarked as to
why the principal would go out of his way to favour her when throughout her
time at the academy, he was the least helpful in service matters,” the commission’s
order states.
The
commission also did not find merit in his claims. “This particular finding is
unnerving as it is not understood as to why the RTI applicant will submit her
withdrawal to a person who has no locus standiin the matter by virtue of the
RTI Act. An RTI application is not something which is filed in official
capacity, that, its withdrawal needs to be submitted to the higher authorities.
Moreover, the RTI application was filed with some other public authority and
not with NDA, while strangely its withdrawal has been filed with NDA. It is
also questionable as to why an applicant will submit withdrawal of RTI,” the
commission observed, adding that there was collusion between NDA principal and
officials at HQ IDS.
The
commission has now recommended that Shukla and officials from HQ IDs should be
pulled up.
An emailed
query to the Ministry of Defence seeking further course of action after CIC’s
order, did not evoke any response.
.JPG)
.JPG)
