CIC unable to punish CBI officials for delayed RTI response on Commonwealth Games related corruption cases

Economic Times: New Delhi: Wednesday, March 20, 2013.

In a peculiar case, the Central Information Commission could not punish some CBIofficials for a delayed response on an RTI application seeking information on Commonwealth Games related corruption cases as the persons concerned were "no longer in service".

During a hearing of a complaint filed by Delhi advocateVivek Garg, Chief Information CommissionerSatyananda Mishra said no penalty was imposed on the officials with CBI's Anti Corruption Branch (ACB), who were responsible for the delay in dealing with the RTI plea, as they were no longer in service.

The CBI had submitted that the delay was caused as the ACB received the the RTI application and a complaint on the matter at around same time. In their attempt to deal with both the complaint and the RTI application together the delay was caused, it said.

"This is hardly a very convincing application. There was no need to club the complaint and the RTI application even if the subject matter of the both was similar. The RTI application needed to be disposed of within a fixed time period," the panel said in the order.

Garg had sought to know details of action taken report on his complaints filed against Delhi Chief MinisterSheila Dikshit and other functionaries alleging their involvement in corruption in executing CWG related projects in the national capital.

The respondent from the CBI also submitted the then Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) in charge of the ACB had died in the meanwhile, while the other officials dealing with the subject had either retired or left the job on resignations.

"Thus, all concerned who were responsible for the delay in the ACB are no longer there in service. In these circumstances, we have no option but to close the case without imposing any penalty on anyone," Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said in the order issued on March 7.

But, there is one lesson for the present CPIO, he must not mix up the RTI application with anything else even if the subject matter is the same and act on the RTI application strictly according to the provisions of the transparency law, Mishra said in the order.

Garg had filed the RTI application on December 11, 2011. Aggrieved over the delayed response, he had approached the CIC last year.