Information regarding the employees registered for marking the attendance through Bio Metric Attendance, the reason why the remaining employees do not mark attendance through Bio Metric; etc was sought - CIC: Department of Personnel & Training to reply
6 Apr, 2018ORDER
Facts:
1. The appellant filed RTI application dated 26.9.2016 seeking information regarding: the number of employees who have been registered from 1.1.2015 to 31.8.2016 for marking the attendance through Bio Metric Attendance, the reason why the remaining employees have not been registered and do not mark attendance through Bio Metric; whether the government has given exemption to the special category for not marking the attendance, reason thereof etc.
2. The CPIO responded on 19.10.2016. The appellant filed first appeal dated 1.11.2016 with the first appellate authority (FAA). The FAA responded on 24.11.2016. The appellant filed second appeal on 21.2.2017 before the Commission on the ground that information should be provided to her.
Hearing:
3. The respondent Mr. Swarupt Dutta, CPIO and S. Mahalingam, TD participated in the hearing personally. The appellant did not participate in the hearing.
4. The respondent stated that vide letter dated 19.10.2016 they had replied to the appellant on all the points of the RTI application. The reply given was read out.
Discussion/ observation:
5. The Commission observed that DoPT appears responsible to issue guidelines to all the Ministries/ Govt. departments related to marking of attendance. Therefore, information on point 1 & 2 of the RTI application (viz. the number of employees who have been registered from 1.1.2015 to 31.8.2016 for marking the attendance through Bio Metric Attendance system, the reason why the remaining employees are not registered with the Bio Metric Attendance system and do not mark attendance through Bio Metric system; whether the government has given exemption to the special category for not marking the attendance, reason thereof) should be transferred to CPIO, Department of Personnel & Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance and Pension within 5 days of receipt of this order and who in turn should give a reply to the appellant within 15 days thereafter.
Decision:
6. The respondent is directed to take action as per para 5.
The appeal is disposed of.
Copy of the order be given to the parties free of cost.
(Radha Krishna Mathur)
Chief Information Commissioner
Citation: Ms. Neelam v. Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology in Appeal No.CIC/DITEC/A/2017/111542, Date of Decision: 1.2.2018