TN info panel set to review wrong order

Gangadhar S Patil; Express News Service: 16 Oct 2010

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu State Information Commission will review one of its orders passed contrary to a rule, which holds that property detail of any panchayat president is a public document. The commission, which had ruled that the information was personal in nature, attributed the mistake to ‘clerical error’.

A Right to Information (RTI) query filed by A Elayaraja, a resident of Alalasundaram, Nagapattinam district panchayat, sought information on 20 points, including property details of his panchayat president.

The panchayat public information officer (PIO) did not furnish it within 30 days, following which Elayaraja filed a complaint with the commission. The commission, after hearing the case, ordered the PIO to furnish information on all the points except property details of the panchayat president.

“During the hearing I was told that the information on property details cannot be furnished since it is third party information,” said Elayaraja.

However, much before the RTI Act 2005 came into force, the Tamil Nadu government had issued an order in 1999 making property details of the panchayat president and its members a public document. It further stated that the information should be shared with the public when asked for. Armed with a copy of the government order, Elayaraja has now filed a fresh appeal with the commission to review its order.

The order was passed by state information commissioner R Perumalsamy in February this year. Talking to Express, Perumalsamy, assured to hold a fresh hearing immediately and issue an order to the PIO to furnish the information at the earliest.

He attributed the confusion to a typo. “I had ordered to furnish all the information but I don’t know how it was omitted in the order,” said Perumalsamy.

“The commission has aligned with the PIO and it does not want me to get the information. After deliberately denying the information, the commission is now trying to get away under the cover of clerical error,” alleged Elayaraja.

There is no provision under the RTI Act to review an order once it is passed by the commission. However, Madhav V, a Chennai-based RTI activist, said an order can be reviewed under special circumstances.