Is a PIO supposed to provide the same information to the RTI applicant again and again?
4 Jan, 2013
Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) seeking information regarding action taken on her representation and the reply given by the UPSC to the Registrar General India (RGI) in response to the clarification sought by RGI in a particular matter. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed that the details about the action taken on the representation have already been provided to the appellant in the past in response to another RTI application. Regarding the clarification sought by the RGI, the PIO claimed that they have not received any such communication from the RGI.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant pointed out that the exact information was never provided to her. The respondent stated that the subject matter of the representation was similar to the matter already considered earlier and some information had been provided in response to a previous RTI request.
View of CIC
The Commission held that the appellant had made a representation with the UPSC and she has a right to know the manner in which the representation was disposed of which could be found out only from the file noting in the relevant file. Regarding the clarification sought by the RGI, the CIC obsered that the response of the UPSC can be found out from the communication which it might have sent to the RGI. The CIC directed the PIO to provide the photocopies of the file noting from the relevant file in which her representation had been processed and the copy of the communication which the UPSC had sent to the RGI in response to the clarification sought by them.
Citation: Mr. Shagufta Nasreen Bhat v. Union Public Service Commission in File No. CIC/SM/A/2012/900815
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/935
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission