Economic
Times: New Delhi: Monday, 15 December 2014.
People
seeking information under RTI Act may now be able to use postal stamps as
application fee if a recommendation of the Central Information Commission is
accepted by the Centre.
Two
Information Commissioners in two separate cases-- R K Jain and Raghubir Singh--
have made a common recommendation to the Department of Personnel and Training
for implementing postal stamps as a mode of payment of RTI fee thus reducing
hassles of applicants.
RTI users now
have to pay a fee of Rs 10 either in cash, bank demand draft or Indian Postal
Order to get information.
Some
authorities like Army and Indian air force refuse to accept applications drawn
in favour of Accounts Officer despite clear directives of the Department of
Personnel and Training causing hassles to applicants.
"The
appellant has submitted that the postal department's recommendation for use of
ordinary postal stamps for payment of RTI fee is both practical and user
friendly. The Commission finds merit in the appellant's submissions and would
urge the DoPT to consider this at the earliest.
"In this
connection it is noted that the government of Tamil Nadu has already allowed
payment of RTI fee by affixing court fee stamps, Information Commissioner
Basant Seth said in the matter of activist R K Jain.
Agreeing with
Seth, Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu also issued an exhaustive
order on the issue recommending to DoPT to avail the opportunity of giving New
Year Gift to the citizens by permitting and publicising the use of ordinary
postal stamps for the payment of RTI fee.
"Accepting
postal stamps for RTI fee would resolve many difficulties in payment, besides
preventing wastage of public money in returning or rejecting the IPOs or
spending much larger amounts than Rs 10, for realising Rs 10, and avoidable
litigation," he said.
Acharyulu
said returning the IPO to the appellant involves writing a letter on a white
paper, covering in an envelop, spending public office's time which could have
been used for some other productive work besides spending Rs 25 or Rs 30 for
speed post.
The case
relates to applicant Raghubir Singh whose application was rejected an year ago
as it was not correctly drawn in the favour of authority designated by the
Directorate of Education, Government of Delhi.
"In all
the public authority will be spending approximately Rs 35 to Rs 50. It will
also cause unnecessary expenditure for the appellant, who has already spend Rs
20 to get a postal order for Rs 10. For returning and taking a different IPO he
has to spend again the same amount," Acharyulu said.
The
Commissioner said spending Rs 50 to reject the IPO worth Rs 10 on silly grounds
would amount to wastage of Rs 50 plus Rs 60.
"By
accepting to deposit the postal order of Rs 10, they would be preventing
expenditure of Rs 60 and use Rs 10," he said.
He said it is
a misuse of the power of PIO to reject to receive RTI application and the fee
amounting to harassment of the applicant.
"It is
also a kind of denial of information. Any kind of delay in furnishing of
information on such grounds, violates the letter and spirit of RTI Act on
several counts," he said.
Issuing a
show cause notice for denying information, the Commissioner directed all the
PIOs of Public Authority to submit separate reports to this Commission
explaining how many IPOs they have rejected so far and what are the grounds of
rejection, from January 2014 to December 10, 2014, within 15 days from the date
of receipt of this order.
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