Indian
Express: Chandigarh:
Thursday, April 04, 2013.
In A
significant judgment, the Punjab State Information Commission has imposed a
fine of Rs 40,000 on a Punjab Police IG for delay in providing information to
an applicant and providing false information. While Rs 25,000 has to be paid by
the IG out of his salary, Rs 15,000 has to be paid as compensation to the
applicant by the police department.
The order
passed by Ravinder Singh Nagi on Tuesday held IG of State Crime Records Bureau
(SCRB) B K Garg guilty of causing “inordinate delay of over a year-and-a-half
in providing the information sought under the RTI Act, 2005 apart from willful
concealment of material facts, both from the complainant as well as the
commission.”
The
applicant, Bant Singh a resident of Rajpura and his son Gurpreet Singh were
arrested by the Rajpura police in 2002 in a assualt case. The case was
investigated by Sub-Inspector Willian Jeji, officiating SHO of Sadar police
station in Rajpura.
Bant Singh
was kept in the police station for two days on the pretext that the duty
magistrate before whom he was to be presented was on leave.
This was
later proved to be false. Bant Singh contended that when this high-handedness
and attempt of the police officers to mislead the authorities came to his
notice, he wrote to the Patiala SSP in 2010 and later to the ADGP (Crime),
requesting sanction under Section 197 of the CrPC to prosecute Jeji.
In January
2011, Bant Singh sought details of daily progress report on his letters under
RTI. DIGP (Crime)-cum-APIO wrote back saying that his letter had been
considered, closed and consigned to records while in reality, Bant Singh’s
letters had been considered and various orders passed on them.
The correct
information was provided to Bant Singh only after the intervention of the
information commission. The commission issued a showcause notice to B K Garg IG (Crime) during the period when false information had been provided to the
applicant.
However, the
commission was not impressed with Garg’s plea. “By no stretch of imagination
can it be said that it was an inadvertent error on the part of the respondent
or it had crept in through oversight,” the order stated.
The
commission has now asked Garg to deposit Rs 25,000 from out of his salary in
the government treasury. “Though a penalty for delay over 18 months in
providing the information at the rate of Rs 250 each day would come to much
more,” the order said.
It added: “A
number of hearings have taken place in this case. Apart from suffering monetary
detriments for attending the same, Bant Singh has also been subjected to lot of
irreparable mental harassment and agony, which, of course, cannot be
compensated in any terms. Yet, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section
19(8)(b) of the RTI Act, 2005, the commission hereby awards him a compensation
to the tune of Rs 15,000 payable by the public authority.”
The orders
were reserved by the commissioner on January 30 when both parties were present
in the commissioner’s court.
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