Gram Panchayat secretary penalized for not providing info under RTI
3 Apr, 2013An application was filed with the gram panchayat secretary of Neermarga village in Mangalore taluk under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the certified copy of the internal audit report pertaining to the village.
As the secretary and the PIO failed to furnish the information, the applicant filed the first appeal with the first appellate authority (FAA), the Administrative Officer of Mangalore taluk. When the information was denied by the FAA also, the appellant approached the state information commission under Section 19(3) A second appeal against the decision under sub-section (1) shall lie within ninety days from the date on which the decision should have been made or was actually received, with the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission: Provided that the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, may admit the appeal after the expiry of the period of ninety days if it is satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from filing the appeal in time. of the RTI Act.
The PIO said before the commission that he had provided the information to the appellant but he failed to produce copy of the postal acknowledgement. The commission has inflicted a penalty of Rs. 2,500 on the PIO which will be paid from his March salary. The PIO will also have to provide one more copy of the information to the appellant within 30 days, free of cost.