Even after receipt of the CIC’s hearing notice, the PIO failed to follow up the matter with the holder of the information nor was any effort made comply with the order of the FAA - CIC expressed its extreme displeasure and issued a strict warning to PIO
17 Aug, 2021Information Sought:
The appellant in his second appeal has stated that he has not been provided information on Point No. 3 of the RTI application, which is given below:
3. Provide the list of supervisors with name & department, who had been deputed at new pulp plant from 2009 to 2013 (from installation till commissioning of the plant).
Grounds for Second Appeal
The CPIO has not provided the information for point No.3 of the RTI application.
Submissions made by Appellant and Respondent during Hearing:
The appellant submitted that till date no information has been provided to him on point no. 3. The CPIO submitted that since the compliance with the FAA’s order was to be done by some other Section, he is not aware if the same has been done or not.
Observations:
From a perusal of the relevant case records, it is noted that for point no. 1 & 2, a suitable reply was given and for point no. 3, the FAA in his order had directed the CPIO to collect the information from SPM, Hoshangabad and provide the same to the appellant.
On a query to the CPIO as to whether any additional information was given to the appellant on point no.3, he was unable to submit anything in this regard. Hence, in the absence of any record, the Commission holds that the FAA order has not been complied with by the CPIO till date. Even after receipt of the CIC’s hearing notice, the CPIO has failed to follow up the matter with the holder of the information nor was any effort made comply with the order of the FAA. The Commission expresses its extreme displeasure to see the irresponsible attitude of the concerned CPIO, who has not even paid heed to his own FAA’s order. Clearly, the CPIO flouted the FAA’s order and is responsible for not providing the desired information to the appellant at the relevant time.
Decision:
The Commission expresses extreme displeasure at the conduct of the concerned CPIO in flouting the FAA’s order. Hence, the concerned CPIO, is issued a strict warning to be careful in future with regard to the above observations and in case such kind of lapse is repeated in future, the Commission will be constrained to initiate penal action against him under the relevant provisions of the RTI Act.
The Commission also directs the present CPIO to comply with the direction given by the FAA in his order dated 17.04.2019 within 20 days from the date of receipt of the order under intimation to the Commission.
The appeal is disposed of accordingly.
Vanaja N. Sarna
Information Commissioner
Citation: J Jayabal v. SPMCIL, Security Paper Mill in File no.: - CIC/SPMIL/A/2019/645066, Date of Decision: 12/05/2021