The
Echo of India: Delhi: Wednesday, 07 October 2015.
All
ministries were today asked to clearly mention detailed reasons for denial of
information sought by people under the RTI Act.
They have
also been told to cite relevant sections of the RTI Act while denying
information under the transparency law. It has been observed that different
public authorities provide information to RTI applicants in different formats.
Though there cannot be a standard format for providing information, the reply
should however essentially contain the name, designation, official telephone
number and email ID of the central public information officer (CPIO), said the
guidelines issued by Department of Personnel and Training.
"In the
concluding para of the reply, it should be clearly mentioned that the First
Appeal, if any, against the reply of the CPIO may be made to the First
Appellate Authority within 30 days of receipt of reply of CPIO," it said.
The name, designation, address, official telephone number and e-mail ID of the
First Appellate Authority should also be clearly mentioned," the
guidelines said. In addition, wherever the applicant has requested for
"certified copies" of the document or records, the CPIO should
endorse on the document "True copy of the document or record supplied
under RTI Act", sign the document with date, above a seal containing name
of the officer, CPIO and name of public authority, it said.
"Further
in case the documents to be certified and supplied is large in number,
information on RTI application should be supplied by a designated PIO but the
certification of the documents, if need be, could be done by an other junior
gazetted officer," said the guidelines issued by the DoPT, which acts as
nodal authority for implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The
RTI Act allows a citizen to seek time-bound reply on governance-related matters
from government departments.
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