Reasons for imposition of penalty on an employee by a Public Authority under RTI

Background

The departmental enquiry was instituted against the appellant and thereafter a penalty was levied on him. The appellant filed an application under RTI seeking the reasons for imposing a penalty on him. The Public Information Officer (PIO) did not respond for several months. On receiving a notice from the Central Information Commission (CIC) for the hearing he denied the information invoking a ruling by the Supreme Court in support of his decision. The appellant argued that as per section 4(1)(d) Every public authority shall provide reasons for its administrative or quasi-judicial decisions to affected persons. of the RTI Act the public authority should convey the reasons for its administrative/quasi-judicial decisions and therefore, he had a right to know about the reasons for imposing a penalty on him.

View of CIC

The Commission noted that the information sought was nothing but material record. The Commission directed the PIO to provide the copies of the relevant pages from the file relating to the departmental enquiry in which the competent authority had recorded his comments leading to the imposition of the penalty.

Citation: Shri Jai Pal Singh v. Allahabad High Court in File No.CIC/SM/C/2011/000959 & 960