CIC: the kind of information the Appellant has sought shows as if some disgruntled employees of the local AIR have used the Appellant to secure such information - PIO directed to place the order before the CVO to take appropriate remedial action
28 Aug, 2013Voluminous information relating to administrative and establishment matters – CIC: the kind of information the Appellant has sought shows as if some disgruntled employees of the local AIR have used the Appellant to secure such information - AIR should make efforts to remove any employee grievance that might be at the root of such relentless information seeking - the authorities should use the RTI as a measure to evaluate the quality of functioning of office - PIO directed to place the order before the CVO to take appropriate remedial action
Order
1. In five separate RTI applications, the Appellant had sought a wide variety of information, largely relating to administrative and establishment matters. The CPIO concerned in various public authorities within the All India Radio had responded to him and had provided some information. He had also appealed against some of the orders passed by the CPIOs. The Appellate Authority concerned, in those cases, had disposed of the appeals either by endorsing the information provided by the CPIO or by providing some further information/ clarification.
2. After carefully considering the facts of all the cases and the submissions made before us, we are of the view that the following additional information be sent to the Appellant:
i. The photocopy of the DoPT circular/ OM based on which promotions from the post of Programme Executive had been made from time to time including those rules which govern reservation in promotion;
ii. the photocopy of the DoPT circular/ OM based on which the seniority list of the officers is prepared.
3. We direct the CPIO concerned to provide the above information to the Appellant within 10 working days of receiving this order.
4. While concluding, we have two observations to make, one, for the Appellant and, the second, for the All India Radio. We note that the Appellant has several grievances against the functioning of the local station of the All India Radio. We also note that he has sought information about the administrative and establishment matters relating to specific employees of the All India Radio, presumably, having very little relation to any public interest or activity. While every citizen has a right to seek all kinds of information from the government authorities, on the face of it, the kind of information the Appellant has sought about the employees of the All India Radio clearly shows as if some disgruntled employees of the local station have used the good offices of the Appellant to secure such information. The Appellant should be very careful in seeking such information. As far as the All India Radio is concerned, we think that they should find out if there is anything wrong in the Shahdol station and make efforts to remove any employee grievance that might be at the root of such relentless information seeking. Very often, the RTI applications give a good idea about the condition of working in any particular office and the authorities should use the RTI as a measure to assess and evaluate the quality of functioning in that particular office. The CPIO is directed to place this order before the relevant authorities in the All India Radio headquarters including the CVO so that they might take appropriate remedial action.
5. All the five appeals are disposed off according.
(Satyananda Mishra)
Chief Information Commissioner
Citation: Shri Rammilan Sahu v. Prasar Bharati in No.CIC/SM/A/2013/000060, 295, 288, 129 & 213