CIC officer delays info to applicant, fined under RTI act.

Hindustan Times: New Delhi: Monday, May 28, 2012.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on one of its officers for delaying providing information to an applicant by over 100 days.

The fine of Rs 25,000, the maximum penalty under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, will be deducted in instalments from June to October from the salary of the  commission’s public information officer (PIO).

The applicant, Rajeev Sharma of Delhi, had sought information as regards to a certain public authority under the RTI Act. This included work allocation to information commissioners to hear/ decide second appeals, number of pending appeals in the case, etc.

When Sharma did not receive information that he had sought in April 2011 within the stipulated time 30 days he approached the first appellate authority (FAA) in May. It, too, did not work, prompting Sharma to approach the CIC.

During the hearing on April 24 this year, Sharma claimed that he had received only half information and that too on April 13, 2012, almost after a year. The remaining information was provided to him by the PIO during the hearing before information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi.

Gandhi issued a show-cause notice to the PIO and called for another hearing on May 21. But he was not convinced when the PIO gave reasons such as ‘displaced/ untraceable files’ for the delay.

Gandhi then imposed the fine on the PIO, who is also the deputy secretary of the commission, for causing delay in providing information. “The secretary, CIC, is directed to recover the amount from the PIO’s salary,” Gandhi had said in his order last week.