Information regarding hiring of machinery by Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd was sought
10 Mar, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL) seeking information in respect of hiring of tools and machinery by the Private Contractors /Companies. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided some information and denied the rest stating that the matter is in the Court of Law. The First Appellate Authority (FAA) stated that the case pertains to the year 1994 i.e.18 years old because of which no office records were available as on date regarding amount received by one of the companies. The FAA also stated that the matter between the two companies is in the Court of Law.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the respondent submitted that a litigation related to the matter is going on in Ratnagiri Court and that only the correspondence files were available with him. The respondent pointed out that the retention period of such correspondence files is only six years as per the schedule for preservation of records. Therefore, the records have already been destroyed.
View of CIC
The Commission directed the PIO to share a copy of the schedule for preservation of records with the appellant.
Comment
Whenever the PIO denies the information stating that it is sought for the period which is beyond the record retention period, he should provide a proof of destruction to the appellant like a destruction memo.
Citation: Mr. Jojo Jose v Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd in File No. CIC/AD/A/2012/002509
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1106
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission