Denial of information can land an officer in jail up to five years

Bangalore Mirror‎‎‎: Bangalore: Tuesday, July 12, 2016.

Information denial will no more entail mere disciplinary action or penalty. It can land an officer in jail for up to five years.

The state information commission (KIC), in June, ordered competent authorities to evoke sections of the lesser-known Karnataka State Public Records Act in about five cases where information had been repeatedly denied by authorities who finally tried to wash their hands of the issue stating the files had gone missing.

The act provides for an imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of Rs 25,000 or both for mishandling or misplacing files, the KIC brass explained. This action from the commission is meant to plug a major loophole in the process of information flow where information is denied citing misplacement of the files - something that happens in over eighty per cent of cases, the brass explained.

"In five cases, the commission has recommended initiation of action under section 9 of the act for contravening section 4 and section 8 of the act. Competent authority in a case - Shimoga Municipal Corporation brass has registered a case under the act against a case worker after a file went missing, and it was informed to commission last month. This is to address the last resort many PIOs (public information officers) take to avoid providing information. The act and subsequent rules call for stringent action when records are destroyed or disposed without following prescribed norms," L Krishna Murthy, state information commissioner told Bangalore Mirror.

The commission has also called for implementing the provisions of the act as it complements the right to information act, and could address the issue of pendency (in a number of cases where information is denied).

"The act calls for designating one officer in each department as records officer who, like the PIO, will address the RTI applications in every department. The act clearly specifies roles and responsibilities of these records officers in maintaining the government records. We have been directing departments to designate one officer to watch over files so they don't go missing, and this, in turn, helps hassle-free information provision," Murthy added. Evoking the act based on the information commission's direction will help achieve the spirit of the RTI act, many activists said.

"This is a welcome move as PIOs often deny information stating that the file is either not traceable or has gone missing. Awareness of the Public Records Act and the commission's action under the act in case of persistent information denial will work as a major deterrent and will help in effective disposal of RTI applications," Jayakumar Hiremath, an RTI activist, told Bangalore Mirror.