Economic Times: New Delhi: Saturday, January 13, 2018.
Chief
Information Commissioner R K Mathur has directed the Prime Minister's Office to
explain the delay in transferring RTI applications to departments concerned
matters relating to the appointment of information commissioners, proposed RTI
rules, among others.
The orders
came on petitions of Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd), who had sought to know the
details of the file notings related to the appointment of information
commissioners, proposed RTI rules, 2017 and a travel bill of the prime minister
through his four RTI applications.
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 authority or
the subject matter of which is more closely connected with the functions of
another public authority, the application is transferred.
"Provided
that the transfer of an application pursuant to this sub-section shall be made
as soon as practicable but in no case later than five days from the date of
receipt of the application," Section 6(3) of the RTI Act states.
Batra said
that he requested for the information pertaining only to the PMO's records.
During the
hearing, Batra stated he has experienced that prolonged delays in providing
information by the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), PMO, has become a
routine matter.
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