Deccan Herald: Bengaluru: Thursday, February 08, 2018.
In a
significant order, the Karnataka Information Commission has directed the state
police to register FIRs whenever a complaint is received against government
servants for declaring public records as "not traceable" or
"missing".
Following the
commission's order, the Devanahalli police registered an FIR against eight
officials of the Devanahalli sub-registrar's office for replying to an RTI
application as "not available".
The officials
booked under section 9 of the Karnataka State Public Records Act are Vasantha
Kumar S R (retired senior sub-registrar); Imtiyaz Ahmed, another senior
sub-registrar; Nagabhusan K M, sub-registrar; Siddaramegowda, first division
assistant; Ragindrappa, Kamalakshi T K, both second division assistants;
Narasimhaiah D R, (retired attender) and Mathew K K, a D group employee.
The
commission had taken up an appeal filed by N Shivakumar challenging the
disposal of his RTI application with the reply "not available".
Shivakumar
had sought copies of sale deeds and thumb impression details pertaining to a
property transaction. The counsel appearing for Shivakumar said that the appeal
was filed in 2014.
"The
Public Records Act and rules categorise certain records as permanent records
and such records cannot be misplaced or lost. In the present case, sale deeds
and thumb impression records are permanent records, but have been misplaced,''
advocate Umapathy said.
He said the
commission had given directions on July 2017 and October 2017 to ensure
registration of FIRs in such complaints. The Devanahalli police failed to register
the FIR and the commission took serious note of it.
"After a
reminder, the Devanahlli police registered the FIR on January 28, 2018. The
commission directed the police to submit an action taken report by the next
hearing on March 16, 2018,'' he said.
Apart from
criminal action, officials responsible for loss of public records also have to
face departmental enquiry.
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