List of the transfers made since 2000 – CIC: finding out such details over 12 years will disproportionately divert the resources of LS Secretariat - cannot be disclosed as it has to be collected from many individual files - section 7(9) applicable
17 Sep, 2013Order
1. The Appellant had wanted a number of establishment related information, such as, the list of all the employees of the Lok Sabha Secretariat including their names, designation and the date of first appointment. He had also wanted to know about the transfer of such employees since the year 2000. Besides, he had requested for various details about the proposals mooted by the MPs for increase in their allowances since the 1952. The CPIO had, slightly belatedly, provided him some information mostly by advising him to visit the Lok Sabha website where this could be seen. Not satisfied, he had preferred an appeal. The Appellate Authority had disposed of the appeal by endorsing whatever information the CPIO had already provided.
2. At the outset, we must state that the scope of some of these queries is really very vast. For example, in the case of the transfer of employees, the Appellant wants the information since the year 2000 and in case of the increase in the allowances of the MPs, he wants this information since the year 1952. We understand from the respondents that the Lok Sabha website has all the debates from the very inception and anyone can access those debates and find out all the details about the proposals ever mooted for increase in the allowances of the MPs. Similarly, the website seems to also contain the entire directory of the officers and employees of the Lok Sabha Secretariat. Thus, two of the three items of information sought are already publicly available.
3. Now, the only piece of information which is not available in the website is the list of the transfers made, over these years. The Respondents pointed out that, by and large, the employees and officers are reallocated, from time to time among various desks, branches and divisions and are not transferred in the normal sense of the term from one establishment to another as the Lok Sabha Secretariat has no other branch anywhere outside the Lok Sabha. The Appellant can be informed about the practice followed in the Lok Sabha in reallocation of duties or interbranch transfers. He can also be provided the available information about such reallocation of duties or interbranch transfers that might have taken place only in the year 201112. We appreciate that finding out such details for a period of nearly 12 years will disproportionately divert the resources of the Secretariat and cannot, therefore, be disclosed, especially when it has to be collected from many individual files.
(Satyananda Mishra)
Chief Information Commissioner
Citation: Sh. Mangat Singh Tayagi v. Lok Sabha Secretariat in File No.CIC/SM/A/2013/000050