Times of India: Chandigarh: Friday, May 04, 2018.
The state
information commission (SIC) Haryana has imposed a fine of Rs 7500 on deputy
excise and taxation commissioner (DETC) Rewari for causing delay of 30 days in
providing information under the RTI act by misinterpreting the provisions of
the act.
State
information commissioner, Hemant Atri has passed these orders while observing
that none of the information sought by the appellant was covered u/s 8
(exemptions from disclosures) of the RTI Act.
“This is a
classic example of misinterpretation at every step by the respondent SPIO. The
SPIO admitted that there was an inadvertent misinterpretation on his part and
the same will not be repeated in future,” observed Atri while imposing fine of
Rs 7500 on Dharambir Dahiya, SPIO-cum-DETC Rewari.
Dahiya had
not supplied the information despite the orders by the first appellate
authority to provide information within seven days.
While
disposing of the matter, Atri has also given strict warning to SPIO that he
should be more careful and cautious while handling and interpreting the RTI
applications in future.
One Shish Pal
Yadav of district Gurgaon had sought some information regarding excise
department Rewari. DETC Rewari, Dharambir Dahiya was the state public
information officer (SPIO) under the RTI act to provide information.
SPIO,
however, had failed to supply the information considering it relates to third
party and exempted under the act. He even failed to supply the information
despite the first appellate authority of the department had directed him to provide
information within seven days. Finally Yadav approached the SIC Haryana against
denial of information.
On March 19,
2018, the SIC had directed SPIO to provide complete information in an attested
format free of cost to the appellant within 10 days. Commission had also issued
show cause notice to the SPIO for not providing the information.
When the
matter came up for hearing on Thursday, commission was informed through
audio-conference by the applicant that he has received the information on April
13, 2018 after the commission’s intervention. He claimed that the information
was not furnished in time and it was furnished only after the sought
information had outlived its utility as validity of the liquor vend was to
expire on March 31, 2018. He requested that strict penal action be taken
against the respondent SPIO for intentional delay of almost eight months. On
this, the SIC imposed fine and warned SPIO to remain careful in future while
dealing the RTI matters.
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