Order of the FAA of CIC was not received by the DS (Admin) & hence, could not be complied within the stipulated time - CIC: FAA to inquire & take appropriate departmental action against the officers responsible for the lapse, if required
5 Jun, 2017O R D E R
1. The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), Central Information Commission (CIC) seeking information pertaining to the dates of hearing of the various petitions he filed with the Commission.
2. The appellant filed a second appeal before the Commission on the grounds that he has not been provided proper information by the CPIO, CIC. The appellant requested the Commission to provide the information sought by him.
Hearing:
3. The appellant was not present despite notice. The respondent Shri A.K. Sharma, Nodal CPIO, CIC was present in person.
4. The respondent on a specific query by the Commission regarding the compliance of the FAA’s order dated 07.04.2015, submitted that the order of the FAA was not received at that point of time by the Deputy Secretary (Admin.), CIC and therefore, could not be complied with, within the stipulated time. However, the order has now been complied with by the CPIO, (Admin), CIC and CPIO, DAK Section, CIC vide letters dated 13.04.2017 and 18.04.2017 respectively.
Decision:
5. The Commission, after hearing the submissions of the respondent and perusing the records, observes that though the information was provided, it was provided with a delay due to non-receipt of the order of the FAA, CIC as claimed by the respondent. However, the Commission takes a note of the fact that the order passed by the FAA, CIC was not received in the Administration (Admn) section of CIC. In view of this, the Commission directs the First Appellate Authority, CIC to inquire into the reasons for the non-receipt of a copy of the order of the FAA, CIC in the Admn section and to ascertain as to whether the order of the FAA was actually not received in the Admn section, or if the CPIO had taken that plea to deny information to the appellant. The FAA shall also, if required, take appropriate departmental action against the officers responsible for the lapse. A copy of the inquiry report along with the action taken report may be provided to the Commission as well as to the appellant within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.
6. With the above observations, the appeal is disposed of.
7. Copy of the decision be provided free of cost to the parties.
(Sudhir Bhargava)
Information Commissioner
Citation: Shri B. Nagesh Kumar v. Central Information Commission in Decision No. CIC/YA/A/2015/001097/SB Dated 22.05.2017