Info panel takes KU to task for concealing attendance details

Chandigarh Tribune‎: Kurukshetra: Tuesday, September 06, 2016.

The State Information Commission (SIC) has chided the Kurukshetra University (KU) authorities for concealing details of class attendance registers by various teaching departments.

In an order passed on August 16, commission member YP Gupta overruled university’s plea that disclosure of details pertaining to attendance could cause unwarranted invasion in the privacy of students.

He directed various teaching departments to furnish the required information of attendance details to applicant Dr Virender Singh Poonia, an associate professor at KU’s Commerce Department.

Poonia alleged that a number of faculty members in various departments were irregular in taking classes and he wanted to expose the wrongdoing. He is yet to get details from the KU departments.

As Poonia filed applications under the Right to Information (RTI) Act to know student attendance details to relate it with direct presence of teachers in the departments since 2010, chairpersons of departments of geography and electronic science refused to give information on various grounds.

In her reply, the head of electronic science submitted that the registers remained in the custody of individual teachers. She said the details demanded were personal in nature of the students and it could not be disclosed.

Taking note of the appeal, the SIC said since university teachers were not ‘private body’, information like attendance could not be withheld.

Gupta said the chairperson of teaching departments, the ex-officio State Public Information Officer, should have demanded information from the teachers concerned by invoking Section 5 (4) of the RTI Act.

The SIC also directed the Geography Department to refund fee of Rs 500 to the applicant as the information was not furnished to Poonia within 30 days.

Poonia claimed several other departments had refused to give him the attendance and the complaints were being heard by the SIC.

Meanwhile, KU spokesperson Dr Tejinder Sharma said the university worked in a transparent manner and it would abide by the directions of the SIC.