Live
Law: New Delhi: Tuesday, 24 November 2015.
Adjudicating
a peculiar situation where a public servant was offered bribe not to file RTI
requests, CIC Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu awarded compensation of Rs 10,000 to
appellant.
Prof. Sridhar
noted that considering the definition of bribe under the Prevention of
Corruption Act, the act may not amount to illegal gratification. However, he
considered it to be a “serious attempt to block the information in utter breach
of RTI Act, 2005 in letter and spirit.”
Appellant,
Mr. Saxena had made a complaint in 2014, alleging that a Government Officer,
SDM (Najafgarh) had offered him a bribe of Rs. 10,000/- for not filing
applications for information under RTI Act. This was regarding 32 welcome gates
that were erected in Palam Assembly Constituency-37. He alleged that thousands
of gates were made spending Rs. 8 to 10 lakh of public money and that these
gates were not made according to the plan approved by the engineer. He alleged
that these gates are being used for illegal purpose.
While Mr.
Saxena demanded an action on his criminal complaint filed against the public
servant for offering him bribe, the public servant argued that he did not
commit any crime.
CIC Sridhar
Acharyulu noted that it was a peculiar case where a public servant offered
bribe to a member of the public. “This can be a symbol of empowerment of a
citizen that became possible because of Right to Information Act. This is
surely a significant incident, as it reversed the process of bribing, though morally
wrong,” the CIC observed.
The
Commission directed the Public Authority to pay an amount of Rs.10, 000/- to
the appellant as compensation, in view of his RTI request being blocked by
inducement of money and delay.
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