Times of India: Chennai: Friday,
June 03, 2016.
Rapping the
public information officer of the Salem chief judicial magistrate court, the
Tamil Nadu State Information Commission (SIC) came to the help of a 73-year-old
former employee of the court whose RTI application demanding a copy of her own
service register was rejected for reasons which were not prescribed by the Act.
The matter
pertains to an RTI application filed by the former court employee, G Girija.
Along with the Rs 10 court fee, she also paid an additional Rs 200 for the
documents. In the application, she cited the ruling of the Central Information
Commission (CIC) order.
Sending back
the application, the district court asked her to submit a copy of CIC order.
Following this, she moved the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission.
In its order
dated April 30, the SIC noted that "this action of the PIO is not in
order. The RTI Act does not envisage that the PIO demand a justification from
the petitioner."
The SIC also
noted that the document demanded by the applicant was not "a document under
Original Side or Appellate Side Rules and hence the procedure of copy
application will not arise."
There is a
separate procedure to obtain documents from the judicial side. Court judgements
cannot be obtained under the RTI Act and applicants have to go through a
separate procedure to get them.
Further, the
information commissioner said there was no justification for the court to
demand more fees as the petitioner had paid the requisite amount. The order
directed the PIO to furnish the documents according to the RTI Act within 30
days.
In lieu of
all these observations, the information commissioner said it could have been
taken up as a complaint under Section 18 of the RTI Act, but an opportunity
would be given to the PIO to respond properly.
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