The Hindu: Coimbatore: Wednesday, May 02, 2018.
A one-page
application filed under the Right to Information Act in December 2013 with the
Coimbatore Corporation to see a file, has over the years gathered mass as it
moved across tables in the civic body and State Information Commission.
The
corporation that kept adding more pages in response to the application also
added more tables by including the police as it said that the file that the RTI
applicant wanted to see was missing.
Tired of the
file running around, the applicant, S.P. Thiyagarajan, moved the Madras High
Court, which on March 19, 2018 directed the Singanallur Police Inspector to
report within four weeks the progress made in the case registered to locate the
missing file.
Justice M.S.
Ramesh said the delay was inordinate and unjustified and as per the Criminal
Procedure Code, the Inspector should report the progress within four weeks.
The applicant
Mr. Thiyagarajan's RTI query on December 18, 2013 to the then East Zone
Assistant Commissioner was to see a file related to the approval given to plots
in a layout developed by the Peelamedu Industrial Cooperative Society.
After failing
to get reply from the officer concerned (Assistant Commissioner, East Zone) and
the then Deputy Commissioner the first appellate authority Mr. Thiyagarajan
moved the State Information Commission. The Commission held an inquiry on
October 2015, during which the officer concerned replied that since it was a
nine-year-old file, he was unable to trace it.
Rejecting the
application given by the Assistant Commissioner and the follow-up action taken
by the then Deputy Commissioner, the Commission wanted to know why the
Corporation Commissioner had not lodged a complaint with Coimbatore City
Police, what action it had taken to trace the file, who was the custodian of
the file that went missing and what action the Corporation had initiated
against the custodian officer and passed a few orders.
It also
directed the authorities concerned to slap ₹ 25,000 fine on the Assistant
Commissioner, the Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner to lodge a complaint with
the Coimbatore City Police, and officials concerned to initiate disciplinary
proceedings against the then Deputy Commissioner for dereliction of duty.
Based on the
direction, the Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner lodged a complaint with the
City Police in February 2016.
Thereafter
nothing much happened for two years until the RTI applicant Mr. Thiyagarajan's
moved the Court seeking a direction to the Singanallur Police to report the
progress in the case registered in 2016 to trace the missing file.
Singanallur
Police said that they would soon file a 'further action dropped' report to the
Coimbatore court and convey the same to the High Court. This was because the
Corporation Commissioner's complaint was vague, without details and their
inquiry with Corporation officials was not helpful.
Mr.
Thiyagarajan said the RTI application of December 2013 had taken many twists
and turns and the way the issue had progressed raised many questions. In the
first place, the Corporation should have initiated disciplinary action against
its officials for missing the file. And the Singanallur Police too should have
done a thorough probe.
He would move
the High Court again for a CB-CID probe because if the missing file were to be
traced, it would reveal several illegalities related to the way the plots were
sold.
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