Seeking records of the orders of Central Administrative Tribunal under RTI

Background

The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking a variety of information related to his own case that was decided by the Cuttack bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). The Public Information Officer (PIO) transferred his RTI application to the respective PIOs of the Jaipur, Chandigarh and Allahabad benches of the CAT who in turn provided the available information regarding the uploading of their decisions in the CAT website. The PIO of the Cuttack bench provided no information by stating that the relevant case files were not traceable in spite of their repeated search. The First Appellate Authority (FAA) directed the PIO to make a renewed effort to locate the lost case file.

Proceeding

During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant submitted that CAT had passed a wrong order and he wanted this order to be reviewed. The respondent of the Cuttack bench submitted that lot of records had been destroyed during the super cyclone which had hit coastal Odisha in the last decade and that these records might have been either destroyed or misplaced during that cyclone.

View of CIC

The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that it cannot comment on the order passed by the CAT. However the Commission showed its concern regarding the loss of the relevant records. The commission advised the authorities in the CAT to institute an enquiry and fix responsibility for the loss of the records and directed the PIO to communicate to the appellant the outcome of any such enquiry. 

Citation: Mr. Satyendra Nath Patnaik v. Central Administrative Tribunal in File No.CIC/SM/A/2011/002464