Kerala Kaumudi: Kerala: Saturday, 13 July 2024.
State Information Commissioner A A Hakeem has said that officials who collect additional fees for RTI documents will be punished. He was speaking after the Right to Information Commission sitting at Ambalapuzha Taluk Office Conference Hall.
The commissioner informed
this while considering the file where a village officer asked the petitioner to
pay Rs 1,06,335 instead of paying around Rs 1000 for 417 pages at a village
office in the district.
The commissioner said that for every day of delay in the information, a fine of Rs 250 will be levied from the officer and departmental disciplinary action against the decision to charge additional fee and compensation for the losses incurred by the petitioner in this regard.
There is no limit to the amount of compensation. Any disciplinary action will be taken as per service rule applicable to them at the departmental level. The commission has received complaints that departments such as revenue and registration and institutions such as universities are charging fees fixed by them for certain documents applied for under the RTI Act. This is against the law passed by the Parliament and the orders of the Supreme Court and the Kerala High Court. In a case filed by a student of Kannur University, it has been ruled that universities must provide documents to students by charging only a fee under the RTI Act.
In a case between the Company Secretaries and the Central Government, the Supreme Court has ruled that if an application is accepted under the Right to Information Act, the fee shall be charged as per that Act and in case of other applications, the fee fixed by the institutions may be charged. In the sitting, 20 cases were considered and 19 cases were settled.
State Information Commissioner A A Hakeem has said that officials who collect additional fees for RTI documents will be punished. He was speaking after the Right to Information Commission sitting at Ambalapuzha Taluk Office Conference Hall.
The commissioner said that for every day of delay in the information, a fine of Rs 250 will be levied from the officer and departmental disciplinary action against the decision to charge additional fee and compensation for the losses incurred by the petitioner in this regard.
There is no limit to the amount of compensation. Any disciplinary action will be taken as per service rule applicable to them at the departmental level. The commission has received complaints that departments such as revenue and registration and institutions such as universities are charging fees fixed by them for certain documents applied for under the RTI Act. This is against the law passed by the Parliament and the orders of the Supreme Court and the Kerala High Court. In a case filed by a student of Kannur University, it has been ruled that universities must provide documents to students by charging only a fee under the RTI Act.
In a case between the Company Secretaries and the Central Government, the Supreme Court has ruled that if an application is accepted under the Right to Information Act, the fee shall be charged as per that Act and in case of other applications, the fee fixed by the institutions may be charged. In the sitting, 20 cases were considered and 19 cases were settled.
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