Respondent: There are more than 3900 Unit Run Canteens and no central data is maintained at Army Hqrs - CIC: Collection and collation of information will disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority attracting Section 7(9) of RTI Act
5 Jan, 2020Information sought:
The Appellant through 5 points sought information management & operational details of Unit Run Canteens existing in Leh, Jammu, Pathankot, Ambala, Agra, Kanpur, Jamnagar, Pune, Nagpur and Hyderabad.
Grounds for the Second Appeal:
The CPIO has not provided the desired information.
Relevant Facts emerging during Hearing:
The following were present:- Appellant: Present through VC
Respondent: Lt Col Jagdish Prasad, GSO-1(Legal) & Rep.of CPIO and Praveen Singh Bisht, Dy. Director, IHQ of MoD (Army) present in person.
Appellant stated that he is not satisfied with the reply of the CPIO. Rep. of CPIO submitted that appropriate reply after receiving the instant RTI Application from MoD has been sent to the Appellant on 03.04.2018 informing that there are more than 3900 URCs and no central data in respect of the averred information is maintained at Army HQrs. He also produced the relevant reply during the proceedings of the hearing for perusal of Commission.
Decision
Commission has gone through the cases records as well as the reply sent by the CPIO and observes that collection and collation of information in respect to 10 districts in the country will disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority attracting Section 7(9) An information shall ordinarily be provided in the form in which it is sought unless it would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation of the record in question. of the RTI Act. No further action lies.
The appeal is disposed of accordingly.
Divya Prakash Sinha
Information Commissioner
Citation: Sunny Bali v. CPIO, Nodal Officer, M/o Defence in File No: CIC/MODEF/A/2018/619511, Date of Decision : 21/11/2019