Jaipur Discom directed to give info on banned note deposits

Times of India: Jaipur: Wednesday, December 27, 2017.

The information commissioner (IC) of Rajasthan has directed Jaipur Discom (JD) to provide information on the number of banned currency notes of denominations Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 deposited by its Bandikui unit (Dausa) in the State Bank of Jaipur and Bikaner (SBJB) branch from November 8 to 10, 2016.

The information was sought by an applicant under the Right to Information Act. The said information was refused to the RTI applicant by JD claiming that it would compromise national and economic security and impact foreign relations.

However, the bizarre reason has been rejected by the IC which directed the discom to give information within 21 days of the date of order on December 16.

The applicant, Hemchand Saini, had filed an RTI application on March 3, 2017 to the managing director of Jaipur Vidhyut Vitran Nigam Ltd (JVVNL) seeking details of the banned currency deposited at the bank in Bandikui.

The deposited currency was power tariff paid by consumers at the Bandikui office of Jaipur Discom. The information sought includes the total number of banned currency notes, copy of receipts, and copy of passbooks along with names of receivers (JD officials) in the first three days of the deposit period.

' Seems JD has deliberately denied info to the applicant'

The applicant filed a second application in JD after 30 days, but was denied the information once again.

On June 16, the applicant submitted a third one before the IC, which directed JD to take a final decision on the applicant's RTI.

A month later, the applicant was again denied the information, citing the reason that the information sought falls under the RTI Act 2005 article 8 (1) (A) (B) (F) which empowers bodies to deny information if it poses a threat to national security.

"It appears that JD has not applied their brains and deliberately denied information to the applicant by repeatedly informing that the information sought can pose a threat to national security. The applicant has presented his case strongly in a bid to bring out the malpractice involved in depositing the banned currency," said Ashutosh Sharma, IC in the order.

The information sought by the applicant doesn't pose any danger to the nation in any form, the order said.