Times of India: New
Delhi: Tuesday, April 02, 2013.
In violation
of the RTI Act, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has refused to provide
information to an applicant saying he failed to show how it was
"useful" to him "personally, socially or nationally".
The reply
from the PMO central public information officer to activist Commodore Lokesh
Batra even after clear directions of his superiors, the First Appellate
Authority, to disclose the information sought by him. Seeking reason for
disclosure of information is against the RTI Act.
Batra had
sought to know information related to digitization and computerization of
records by PMO as mandated in the Section 4(1)(a) of the RTI Act.
Rather than
complying with directives of senior officer, CPIO S E Rizvi refused to disclose
information saying the query would fall in the category of one "where the
applicant has not specified how the information is useful to him either
personally, socially or nationally."
Under the RTI,
applicant is not required to give any reasons while seeking information. As per
the Act, information can only be denied if it comes under exemption clauses of
the transparency law.
Section
4(1)(a) of the Right to Information Act says, "every public authority
shall maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the
form which facilitates the right to information under this Act.''
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