Chief Secretary of A&N asked to implement section 4 of RTI Act
6 Apr, 2013Background
The appellant filed three identical applications under the Right to Information (RTI) Act; one with the Andaman and Nicobar Administration (A&NA) and two with the Pradhan Gram Panchayat. He wanted to know about the status of the implementation of the provisions of section 4(1)(a) Every public authority shall maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilitates the right to information under this Act and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerised are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerised and connected through a network all over the country on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated; , section 4(1)(b) Every public authority shall publish within one hundred and twenty days from the enactment of this Act,- (i) the particulars of its organisation, functions and duties; (ii) the powers and duties of its officers and employees; (iii) the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability; (iv) the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions; (v) the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records, held by it or under its control or used by its employees for discharging its functions; (vi) a statement of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control; (vii) the particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with, or representation by, the members of the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or implementation thereof; (viii) a statement of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two or more persons constituted as its part or for the purpose of its advice, and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils, committees and other bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such meetings are accessible for public; (ix) a directory of its officers and employees; (x) the monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the system of compensation as provided in its regulations; (xi) the budget allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made; (xii) the manner of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and the details of beneficiaries of such programmes; (xiii) particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorisations granted by it; (xiv) details in respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic form; (xv) the particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for public use; (xvi) the names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers; (xvii) such other information as may be prescribed and thereafter update these publications every year; , section 4(1)(c) Every public authority shall publish all relevant facts while formulating important policies or announcing the decisions which affect public; and section 4(1)(d) Every public authority shall provide reasons for its administrative or quasi-judicial decisions to affected persons. of the RTI Act. The Public Information Officer (PIO) concerned in each of the public authorities provided some information and asked for photocopying charges against some information. In some of these cases, the Appellate Authority had passed some order on the appeal preferred before him.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC) the representative of the appellant explained that none of the public authorities had complied with the provisions of section 4(1) entirely and had made only lip service wherever any such disclosure was made. The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that of the three public authorities, two are Gram Panchayats which has only one fulltime Secretary each and no other staff. The CIC took a view that the Panchayats do not have access to internet services all over the Island and may not be in a position to disclose any information in any website which is not the case for any office located in Port Blair. The Commission held that the implementation of the provisions of section 4 is the responsibility of each public authority. In a small Union Territory like the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the initiative for this must come from the top and it is for the Chief Secretary to issue directives to all the public authorities functioning under the Administration to comply with this provision.
The Commission directed that keeping the instructions issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in view, the Andaman and Nicobar Administration can ensure that every public authority comes out with a detailed disclosure of all the information as required under these provisions within a fixed time limit. The Commission held that it would be enough for a Gram Panchayat to publish, even on its notice board, the lists of schemes it has implemented, the names and other details of the beneficiaries of the schemes, the amount of grant/ subsidy/ concession/ scholarship/ stipend/ pension that it disburses every month, the details of the persons below poverty line and so on.
The public authorities having access to internet must publish all such data in their respective website. All the historic data held by them such as circulars, guidelines, instructions and office memoranda can be scanned and uploaded. The directory of officers and employees and the monthly salary paid to them can be directly uploaded at least once in a year by accessing such data from the Pay and Accounts Office. The list of schemes implemented under every department/public authority can simultaneously be disclosed by scanning the details of the scheme and uploading those in the website. The exercise is not very complicated and can be completed easily only if some senior official in the public authority is made responsible personally.
The CIC observed that the process of disclosure under Section 4(1)(b) Every public authority shall publish within one hundred and twenty days from the enactment of this Act,- (i) the particulars of its organisation, functions and duties; (ii) the powers and duties of its officers and employees; (iii) the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability; (iv) the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions; (v) the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records, held by it or under its control or used by its employees for discharging its functions; (vi) a statement of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control; (vii) the particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with, or representation by, the members of the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or implementation thereof; (viii) a statement of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two or more persons constituted as its part or for the purpose of its advice, and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils, committees and other bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such meetings are accessible for public; (ix) a directory of its officers and employees; (x) the monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the system of compensation as provided in its regulations; (xi) the budget allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made; (xii) the manner of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and the details of beneficiaries of such programmes; (xiii) particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorisations granted by it; (xiv) details in respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic form; (xv) the particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for public use; (xvi) the names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers; (xvii) such other information as may be prescribed and thereafter update these publications every year; has to be done without fail and the process of section 4(1)(a) Every public authority shall maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilitates the right to information under this Act and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerised are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerised and connected through a network all over the country on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated; is a continuing one. The indexing, cataloguing and computerization of the existing and past records needs to be taken up on a continuous basis, and completed within a time frame. Simultaneously, the current data generated on a day to day basis, can be straightaway stored in a scheduled format. This would make the retrieval of information extremely easy and the citizens will also find it very easy to specify the information they really need.
View of CIC
The CIC expressed the hope and expected that the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands would initiate a drive and complete this exercise in a period of two months which would be reviewed on 1 June 2013 to find out the extent of compliance. The CIC also directed that in future, the public authorities can revise the data once every year and make it up to date.
Citation: Mr. P S Saboo v. Andaman and Nicobar Administration O/o. the Pradhan Gram Panchayat in File No.CIC/SM/A/2012/001632, 1633 & 1840
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1169
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission