Times of India: New Delhi: Saturday, January 13, 2018.
The Central
Information Commission (CIC) has asked the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to
answer RTI queries addressed to it instead of directing them to the department
of personnel (DoPT).
In an order
on RTI queries addressed to PMO, the CIC said there was no requirement to send
them to DoPT and asked for an explanation for the delay in response.
The
strictures came on a series of RTI pleas filed by Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd)
who had sought details of the file notings related to appointment of
information commissioners, proposed RTI rules, 2017 and a travel bill of the
prime minister.
According to
the Right to Information Act, when an application is made to a public authority
requesting for an information, which is held by another public body or the
subject matter of which is more closely connected with the functions of another
public authority, the application is directed to the authority concerned.
However, in two of the RTIs filed by Batra, the information sought had been
with the PMO, which referred them to DoPT.
In an order,
chief information commissioner RK Mathur said, "The Commission is of the
view that the appellant has specifically sought information as available in
PMO. Hence,a transfer of this RTI application to DoPT was not required."
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