GreaterKashmir: Srinagar: Saturday, June 02, 2012.
Pulling up the Home Department for demonstrating laxity in the disposal of an application filed under Right to Information (RTI) Act, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Information Commissioner G R Sufi has asked First Appellate Authority (FAA) of Law Department to identify the deficiencies and inaccuracies in the order passed by Public Information Officer (PIO) of the said department over the information relating to magisterial inquires and other probes ordered by the State Government.
Khurram Parvez of Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) had filed an application in the Home Department seeking information over the magisterial inquires and other probes ordered under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1962, between 1990 and 2011 and related information.
According to the order passed by CIC, the Home Department not only delayed the transfer of application to the Law department, but also forwarded the application in a casual manner.
“The PIO Home Department had either to dispose the application as expeditiously as possible but not later than 30 days or forward it to other concerned PIO working under the same Public Authority or any other Public Authority within five days after carefully ascertaining whether the information requisitioned did pertain and was possessed by other PIO,” the ruling says.
“It is unfortunate to find that the procedure laid down for forwarding the RTI application to other PIOs u/s 5 of the State Right to Information Act, 2009, has not been adhered to, rather the letter has been written in a casual manner. The Home Department which is original receiver of the application should identify all the holders of the information and then forward the RTI application to the concerned PIOs not in a technical fashion but in the manner as laid down in the Act,” it adds.
Although Law Department had provided information to the applicant within time, but the information seeker moved to FAA of the Department on the grounds that information was incomplete.
“The appellant not being satisfied with the PIO’s order filed First Appeal before First Appellate Authority, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Department, J&K on 09.03.2012. The First Appellate Authority has disposed appeal on 27.03.2012 which is well within the stipulated period of time as laid down u/s 16 of the Act,” the order reveals.
After hearing the arguments of Law Department, the Commission ordered that the application be sent back to FAA “with the direction that he may identify the deficiencies and inaccuracies in the PIO’s order.”
“The said First Appellate Authority is required to dispose the appeal within 20 days from the receipt of this order after giving due opportunity to the appellant. The appellant is directed to appear before the First Appellate Authority, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Department, as and when called by him,” the order says.
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