Penalty of Rs 145 lakhs imposed by the CIC under the RTI Act
2 May, 2012The Central Information Commission has often been criticised for being soft on the PIO’s (Public Information Officers) and for not imposing penalty. As per the RTI Act, the CIC has the power to impose a penalty of Rs 250/- per day for each day of delay subject to a maximum of Rs 25,000/- on the PIO, if the information is not provided within the mandatory period of 30 days.
Analysis of data has revealed that since 2005, the CIC has imposed penalties worth Rs 145 lakhs on the PIO’s since 2005 and has been able to recover only 83 lakhs. Some of this 43% remaining part of the penalty is attributed to the cases that have gone into litigation challenging the orders of the CIC before the courts. The rest are attributed to lack of appropriate efforts on the part of the CIC.