Times of India: Bangalore: Thursday, May 02, 2013.
The Karnataka
high court has said that the State Information Commission (SIC) cannot directly
entertain a complaint in instances where complainants have failed to avail of
the first appeal remedy in case of public information officers (PIOs) allegedly
failing/refusing to provide information.
"If the
applicant/complainant is aggrieved by the PIO then he has to file an appeal
under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act before the first appellate authority. If he
is aggrieved by the action/inaction of the authority, he has to file an appeal
under Section 19(3) before the second appellate authority. Filling of an
application under Section 18(1) of the Act complaining about the alleged
inaction of the PIO is clearly not permissible by law. Also, the procedure
adopted by SIC is not permitted by law," Justice S Abdul Nazeer observed
while allowing petitions filed by Bescom and some of its officers challenging
the April 18,2012 order of SIC.
The judge
also quashed SIC's orders issuing show-cause notice, imposing penalty on PIOs
and also permitting the complainant S Naresh Kumar to inspect records sought by
him through his application.
Bescom and
its officers had contended that the requirements under Section 19 of the RTI
Act were not adhered to and SIC could not have entertained the application
under Section 18 since the applicant/complainant did not avail the appeal
remedy. They also claimed that they had provided the information sought by
Kumar.
Kumar had
approached SIC complaining that the officers refused to furnish the information
sought by him.
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