Times of India: Pune: Monday, August 27, 2018.
Some
confusion prevails over self-attested documents as proof of economic status
under the Right to Information Act, 2005 at the Savitribai Phule Pune
University.
The issue
came into focus when a student applied to the university under Right to
Information Act 2005 with self attested documents, but was told to produce
papers attested by gazetted officials to prove his below poverty line status.
The student
wanted to get details of Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj scholarship given to students
in SPPU along with the fee regulation committee reports and the money
university spends in organizing national and international conferences.
But when he
applied for the information under Right to Information Act, attaching his claim
for free information as he comes from below poverty line, he was denied the
information for want of ‘authentic proof’.
Despite
attaching the self-attested photocopies of the yellow ration card and bonafide
stating his economic status, the university has told him to provide a gazetted
officer attested proof which the student feels is a way to deny him
information.
RTI activists
and students said the RTI department at the varsity needs to be spruced up as
the PMO had clarified that self-attestation of documents are valid proof.
“I had
self-attested the first page and last page of my yellow ration card along with
the certificate from panchayat officer stating that I belong to below poverty line
category. I had sought information about the disbursement of Rajarshi Shahu
Maharaj scholarship, fee regulation in affiliated colleges and money spent by
the university on conferences it organizes. I had sent the application along
with proof via speed post in the first week of August,” Kuldeep Ambekar, an
aspiring law student, said.
On August 16,
Ambekar got a reply stating that his request could not be processed as required
authentic proof as per the Right to Information Act of 2005 was not submitted
and that the photocopies of documents he had submitted could not be admitted.
The student got another mail later stating that he should get the documents
attested from a gazetted officer.
Aruna Chavan,
information officer at SPPU, said, “Self-attestation isn’t allowed when
submitting documents claiming to be BPL. Rules of RTI Act specify the documents
submitted should be attested by an officer. If the student submits the original
certificate to me, I can check the originals and then sign the photocopies. We
are not denying information but only sticking to the rules.”
RTI activist
Vijay Kumbhar said the university was not doing its work. “The Modi government
did away with the official attestation and adopted self-attestation. It is
applicable everywhere including RTI. The university’s RTI department needs to
accept the changes and adopt self-attestation as valid proof just like any
other department of the government instead of creating trouble for applicants.”
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