Information Commissioners told to ensure compliance of guidelines

The Tribune: Ludhiana: Thursday, 05 March 2020.

It’s on record now. Amidst complaints of some State Information Commissioners (SICs), which are entrusted the task of the implementation of the Right to Information Act (RTI), 2005, violating guidelines issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT), Government of India, the Administrative Reforms Department, Punjab, and the State Information Commission, Punjab, have now virtually confirmed with the Deputy Registrar, PSIC, issuing an office order on February 25, 2020 on the subject.

Through the said office letter (PSIC/Legal/2020/94) the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and all SICs of the Punjab State Information Commission (PSIC) have been asked to follow instructions issued by the DOPT on October 6, 2015, and subsequently recommended by the Department of Governance Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of Punjab, on December 3, 2015, while deciding appeal/complaint cases in the commission.

Earlier, in a complaint filed with the CIC, Punjab, the Council of the RTI Activists president, Rohit Sabharwal, had drawn his attention towards an office memorandum issued by the DOPT on October 6, 2015, under which certain guidelines were notified and a format provided, which was required to be followed by the public authorities and the SICs for disposal of second appeal cases filed by aggrieved applicants.

“Unfortunately, most public information officers (PIOs) and even the SICs are not following the guidelines or the format provided for this purpose by the DOPT even though several letters have been issued by the Department of Administrative Reforms (on December 31, 2015 and recently on January13, 2020) in this regard,” Sabharwal lamented.

The complainant had claimed that the said format, along with the guidelines were widely circulated among all heads of the departments by the Department of Administrative Reforms, Punjab, more than once with special emphasis on scrupulous compliance of directions.

He had called upon the CIC to seek reasons from the SICs for their failure to ensure compliance of format issued by the DOPT at the time of hearing second appeals. Sabharwal further demanded that strict directions be issued to SICs to follow the format as well as guidelines issued by the DOPT and the Department of Administrative Reforms, Punjab, with an objective of implementation of the RTI Act in letter and spirit.