Financial Express: New Delhi: Tuesday,
October 18, 2016.
The Central
Information Commission has pulled up an RTI applicant for filing a
“irresponsible and frivolous” application to know from Benaras Hindu University
if the civilian honour ‘Padma Shri’ awarded by central government can be used
as a title by the recipient.
The matter
was raised by one Pramil Pandey, who works with Life Insurance Corporation of
India, after he filed an RTI application seeking to know if ‘Padma Shri’ could
be used as prefix before somebody’s name.
He filed the
query after an inauguration plaque of Central Hindu Boys School had the title
‘Padma Shri’ prefixed before the name of renowned DNA scientist Lalji Singh, a
Padma Shri recipient.
“It is
pathetic that he does not know such clarifications cannot be made available to
him because PIO cannot procure anything on such questions. He also does not
have any duty to provide this under RTI Act,” Information Commissioner Sridhar
Acharyulu said.
He is, in
fact, objecting to usage of Padma Shri as prefix of name of Professor Lalji
Singh on the inauguration plaque, he said.
“It is most
irresponsible and frivolous RTI application by an educated person, who does not
know anything about the renowned professor and his contribution to the DNA
Research and how he richly deserved the title Padma Shri,” Acharyulu said.
However, the
Supreme Court in one of its judgments had clearly stated the the award ‘Padma
Shri’ cannot be used as titles or prefix to name.
Recently, in
a case of two Telugu actors using ‘Padma Shri’ as prefix, the Supreme Court had
asked them to give an undertaking that such action will not be repeated.
In another
case, the apex court in Balaji Raghavan and S P Anand vs Union Of India had
clearly underlined that The National Awards do not amount to “titles” within
the meaning of Article 18(1) and they should not be used as suffixes or
prefixes.
It had said
if this is done, the defaulter should forfeit the national award conferred on
him or her by following the procedure laid down in Regulation 10 of each of the
four notifications creating these national awards.
The case of
Lalji Singh was slightly different as ‘Padma Shri’ title was not added by him
before his name.
“No sensible
man will have any objection if Padma Shri is used in a ‘Shilapat’ in BHU as
prefix to his name, which he served as Vice Chancellor till 2014. Perhaps the
appellant did not care to know that during his three-year tenure as vice
chancellor at BHU, Padma Shri Singh took Re 1 as a token salary…,” the
Information Commissioner said.
He said
though it is a useless RTI application and worthless appeal, causing waste of
time, energy and video conferencing slot of 15 minutes linking the BHU to CIC
using the NIC network, it can serve as an example of a frivolous and senseless
RTI request and appeal by an educated appellant, if there is any course or
workshop on how not to draft RTI requests by the BHU.
“The
Commission directs the public authority to send a certified copy of the profile
of Padmashri Lalji Singh, explaining his great contribution to the field of
science and to the BHU to the appellant, within one month from today,” he said.
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