Forest dept toldto return Rs 20k to RTI applicant

Times of India: Mumbai: Friday, April 12, 2013.

In a landmark order, the Aurangabad information commissioner D B Deshpande on Wednesday told the forest department to return Rs 20,000 paid by an information seeker towards the cost of documents and provide them to him for free for violating the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

On December 21, 2010, Sharad Jaiswal submitted an application under the RTI Act to the Nanded assistant conservator of forests, wanting to know about the status of a few projects in Marathwada. On December 27, the public information officer (PIO) asked him to pay Rs20,000 towards charges for copying documents. Accordingly, Jaiswal deposited the amount with the competent authority recommended by the forest department. But despite reminders, the department failed to provide Jaiswal with the documents.

Subsequently, Jaiswal submitted an appeal to the Aurangabad information commissioner, D B Deshmukh. During the course of the hearing, the PIO admitted that the applicant had deposited the money in the Nanded district treasury; however, he was unable to make the payment towards copying charges since his senior officer did not release the money for the purpose.

Deshmukh summoned the principal chief conservator of forests, who, too, admitted that owing to non-availability of funds, the relevant documents could not be given to the applicant. "Under the RTI Act, since the applicant has deposited the fees with the competent authority, it is binding on the information officer to provide the documents within 30 days," said Deshmukh.

"In the present case, as the information officer has failed to provide the documents, I am directing him to provide the documents free of cost and also return Rs20,000 to him (Jaiswal)," Deshmukh said.

Deshpande asked the forest department to draft a comprehensive action plan for the effective implementation of the right to information act, so that no inconvenience is caused to the applicants.

It was for the first time that since the RTI act came into force in 2005 that a commissioner has asked a government department to return the cost of copying, following its failure to provide the documents within the stipulated period.

This is the first time that a govt department has been asked to return the cost of copying documents following failure to provide them within 30 days as stipulated by the RTI Act.