CIC's order adds more teeth to RTI

Times of India: Thiruvananthapuram: Friday, 12 September 2014.

The central information commission (CIC) order will bring in a huge relief to many RTI applicants in the state whose queries have been rejected on the ?missing file' category.

RTI applicants have been complaining that departments like home, industries and corporation rejected sensitive information on the grounds that the files have gone missing especially in old cases.

A case in point is the state-owned ship, Kairali, that went missing 35 years ago. "The government-owned ship had gone missing and many families are yet to get any compensation nor do they have any clue as to how the ship went missing,'' say RTI activist D B Binu.

The PIO of the home department in this case replied that the files had gone missing. This order was challenged and an RTI appeal was filed with the state information commissioner. The information commissioner M N Gunavardhan though directed the state to provide the information two months ago; it has not furnished the required information.

The CIC, in its latest order, said that claim of file missing or not traceable has any legality as it was not recognized as an exception by RTI Act.

"It amounts to breach of Public Records Act, 1993 and punishable with imprisonment up to a term of five years or with fine or both. The public authority has a duty to initiate action for this kind of loss of public record, in the form of not traceable or missing file,'' the order said.

The CIC said that the public authority also has a duty to designate an officer as records officer and protect the records."A thorough search for the file, inquiry to find out public servant responsible, disciplinary action and action under public records act, reconstruction of alternative file, relief to the person affected by the loss of file are the basic actions the public authorities are legitimately expected to perform,'' the CIC said.

"Any claim of defense that the file is missing without any efforts to trace the same, would amount to denial of information which can be dealt with as per Section 20 of Right to Information Act, 2005,'' the CIC said.

The CIC order came in the wake after Om Paraksh, a Delhi resident sought information about his right to get alternative plot in lieu of the land acquired by the government during 1986- 87.