Applicant should refrain from seeking endless information under RTI
21 Feb, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) seeking details in respect of the different works carried out by the Executive Engineer and other related points. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided part information and provided the opportunity for file inspection to the appellant.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant submitted that despite having approached the Public Authority twice, no opportunity of inspection has been provided to him.
View of CIC
The Commission directed that the appellant along with the concerned official of the Public Authority will identify any 20 projects for physical inspection as per the RTI Application. The CIC also held that Public Authority would provide the inspection of the concerned documents (for two hours) based on the identification of the 20 projects and will then provide 50 pages of the photocopy of the documents as desired by the appellant. Photocopies exceeding 50 pages are to be provided upon payment made by the appellant. The Commission further ruled that based on the inspection of 20 projects, the appellant should be provided with any five material samples of the different works free of cost by the PIO. Under section 20(1) Where the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, at the time of deciding any complaint or appeal is of the opinion that the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, has, without any reasonable cause, refused to receive an application for information or has not furnished information within the time specified under sub-section (1) of section 7 or malafidely denied the request for information or knowingly given incorrect, incomplete or misleading information or destroyed information which was the subject of the request or obstructed in any manner in furnishing the information, it shall impose a penalty of two hundred and fifty rupees each day till application is received or information is furnished, so however, the total amount of such penalty shall not exceed twenty-five thousand rupees: Provided that the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, shall be given a reasonable opportunity of being heard before any penalty is imposed on him: Provided further that the burden of proving that he acted reasonably and diligently shall be on the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer, as the case may be. of the RTI Act, the CIC issued a show cause notice to the PIO to show cause why penalty should not be imposed on him for not having carried out his functions as mandated under the RTI Act and failing to respond to the RTI application within time frame prescribed under the Act.
Citation: Mr. Ujjawal Srivastava v. East Delhi Municipal Corporation in Appeal: No. CIC/DS/A/2012/001540
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1067
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission