DNA: Mumbai: Thursday,
June 27, 2013.
If an RTI
applicant does not provide postal envelope, it cannot be the reason for not
providing information to him/ her.
The order by
BY Kale, additional chief metropolitan magistrate, on Tuesday will come as a
relief to many applicants who are denied information on some ground or the
other.
As per the
Maharashtra district court, Right to Information (Revised) Rules 2009, if an
applicant has made an application through post, he is supposed to provide a
self-addressed envelope with postal stamps equivalent to the rate for
registered post with acknowledgment due (RPAD).
The public
information officer then sends the information by post. Applicant Chetan
Kothari had sought details on the follow-up and compliance done by the
authority with respect to certain sections of the RTI Act.
These
included actions on sections 2, 4 and 5 of the RTI Act which speak of
constituting authority, designating public information officers, cataloguing
their records, putting up information on the number of staff and their salary
and the number of RTI applications received.
The public
information officer (PIO) declined giving information, stating that the applicant
had not provided the envelope and hence did not follow the rule book.
In its order,
the first appellate authority stated the PIO’s order was “illegal” and merely
if someone does not give a self-addressed envelope, he cannot be denied
information.
It also
stated that the PIO needs to inform the applicant how much he needs to pay
before he has to pay for it. “It is an important order as it will help a lot of
people. The problem is that the rules were not even available on the website,”
said Kothari.
“The order
will give some clarity to other PIOs. Now if someone goes to the commission,
they (authority) will not go against the order of their own first appellate
authority,” said Shailesh Gandhi, former central information commissioner.
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