Moneylife: Pune: Thursday,
June 27, 2013.
The CIC said
it was necessary for the principal employer to access information regarding the
compliance by the contractors or other workers working on its site. This is the
121st in a series of important judgements given by former Central Information
Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi that can be used or quoted in an RTI application.
The Central
Information Commission (CIC), while allowing an appeal, directed the Public
Information Officer (PIO) in the Department of Space (DS) at Bengaluru-based
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to access the information regarding
the provident fund (PF) status of sub-contractors and the sub-sub-contractors
workers of Premier Explosives and provide it to the appellant.
While giving
this judgement on 26 August 2011, Shailesh Gandhi, the then Central Information
Commissioner, said, “...all public authorities have special duty to ensure that
laws are adhered to by their contractors and sub-contractors. The information
regarding the (PF) facilities being given to the sub-contractors is certainly
information which can be accessed by the public authority as per the
requirement of the law.”
Nellore
resident Notam Mohan, on 5 May 2010, sought information regarding works or
services carried out by the sub-contractors, sub-sub-contractors of Premier
Explosives from the PIO of DS at the ISRO, under the Right to Information (RTI)
Act.
In his reply,
the PIO stated, information sought (by Mohan) was not held by the office and
the same does not come under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act, 2005. Further, the PIO
provided a list of sub-contractors and subsequently asked Mohan to contact
Premier Explosives for details of works and services provided by the
contractors.
Not satisfied
with the reply, Mohan then filed his first appeal stating that he believes that
the PIO's claim of Section 2(f) and the company being not under the purview of
RTI Act was not reasonable. There was no mention of any order passed by the
First Appellate Authority (FAA).
Mohan then
approached the Commission. In his second appeal, he maintained that his
allegations of having received only part, misleading and false information.
Subsequently,
as per the suggestion from the PIO, on 20 June 2011, Mohan sought information
from Premier Explosives. However, the company replied saying that RTI Act was
not applicable to Premier Explosives.
During the
hearing through video conferencing before Mr Gandhi, Mohan reiterated his
demand for information about the sub-contractors and sub-sub-contractors of
Premier Explosives who are carrying out the work at the site of the public
authority (ISRO).
The PIO
stated that the DS does not keep information about the sub-contractors and
sub-sub-contractors and this was also not required as per law.
Mohan
contended that as far as payment of provident fund (PF) is concerned the public
authority is responsible for ensuring that PF is paid to all the workers
working in the premises of the public authority and as a principal employer, it
is the responsibility of the public authority to monitor this.
The PIO
stated that since the department does not hold the information, he cannot be
asked to provide it as per Section 2(f) of the RTI Act.
Section
2(f) of the RTI Act defines,
“information"
means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails,
opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts,
reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and
information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public
authority under any other law for the time being in force”.
Mr Gandhi
said, “It is necessary that the principal employer must access information
regarding the compliance by the contractors or other workers working on the
site. The Commission would here like to point out that all public authorities
have special duty to ensure that laws are adhered to by their contractors and
sub-contractors. The information regarding the PF facilities being given to the
sub-contractors is certainly information which can be accessed by the public
authority as per the requirement of the law.”
While
allowing the appeal, the Commission then directed the PIO to access the
information regarding the PF status of the sub-contractors and the
sub-sub-contractors workers and provide it to Mohan before 20 September 2011.
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