Kashmir Times: Jammu: Saturday,
June 22, 2013.
Slamming its
own Public Information Officer (PIO), the Jammu and Kashmir Raj Bhavan
(Governor’s Secretariat) has set aside its (PIO’s) order where the latter has
denied information to the applicant RTI activist on the pretext of ‘privilege’.
According to
RTI activist Raman Sharma, the Principal Secretary to Governor Navin K
Chwdhary, who is also first appellate authority under RTI Act, has not only set
aside the order of the PIO/Deputy Secretary dated March 12/2013 but has also
termed the order as ‘vague’.
Principal
Secretary in his order no 01/2013 dated 13/06/2013 has stated, ‘As the PIO’s
order suffers from the defect of vagueness, his order dated March 12/2013 is
set aside.”
According to
Sharma, the appeal order also states that the PIO’s order should specify
clause(s) of sub section 1 of Section 8 of the RTI Act under which the
appellant has been denied information and should also explain how the
information sought by the appellant falls within the four corners of that
specific provision(s).
“The PIO’s order
should also specifically consider whether all the information sought by the
appellant is exempted or only a part thereof is exempted from disclosure. If
the information or a part thereof is not available or for any other reason
cannot be provided the same should be explicitly spelt out in the reply to the
appellant,” the appeal order further directed.
In the same
order, the PIO has been directed to consider the appellant’s request for
information afresh in the light of the issues raised in the appeal order
strictly as per the provisions of the RTI act and rules and make available
revised consideration within a period of two weeks.
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