Reinstate Registrar by Tuesday, CIC directs IIT Delhi

[ganpat1956]

New Delhi, August 2: THE Central Information Commission (CIC) directed the IIT Delhi administration on Thursday to reinstate its suspended Registrar Col Rajendra Singh within two working days. Information Commissioner O P Kejriwal said it appears the institute director suspended Singh to settle “personal scores”.

IIT Delhi Director Prof Surendra Prasad had suspended Singh for non-payment of a penalty imposed on him by the CIC in an earlier case. Delivering his order, Kejriwal said the HRD Secretary should take suitable action against Prasad, emphasising that he had “exceeded his authority”. According to the order, Singh should be back in office latest by Tuesday.

The CIC had in an earlier case imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on Singh. In case of non-payment the amount was to be deducted from his salary. The CIC noted that it had subsequently received the complete payment in two instalments. Its Thursday order came on a complaint submitted by Singh on Monday that he had been victimised and suspended by the institute.

The CIC said the way he (Prasad) acted it appears to be a means of settling personal scores. Kejriwal said the CIC had directed the institute only to recover the penalty from Singh’s salary and in no way empowered the director to suspend him by way of administrative action. Reprimanding Prasad for misusing the CIC’s order and the RTI, Kejriwal has recommended action against him.

Singh was suspended last Friday, a day after he approached the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) seeking an investigation into “misappropriation of funds at IIT Delhi”. Singh had sought investigations into an order issued to him by the IIT administration for release of Endowment Funds for foreign junkets of faculty members during the first week of July this year.

Reinstate Registrar by Tuesday, CIC directs IIT Delhi

[colnrkurup]

This is one of the typical exmple of the CIC's unlawful orders. The only powers vested in theCIC is to ensure provision of the information within the frame-work of theRTI Act and to award penalties given in Section 20 of the Act to the defaulting PIO. The CIC is not 'India's Policeman to supervise the functioning of the PublicAuthorities'. No self-respecting public authority will abide this unlawful orders. It is high time that the CIC understand the RTI Act and avail the services of his Legal Advisor.

[ganpat1956]

I am sure this issue is going to snow-ball into something serious in the coming weeks as indicated by the following news report--Ganpat

CIC orders IIT to reinstate registrar

NEW DELHI: If you exceed your authority, we will exceed ours. This seems to be the tacit basis on which the Central Information Commission (CIC), set up only to interpret the RTI Act, has assumed the power to direct the reinstatement of the registrar general of IIT Delhi.

In an unprecedented order, information commissioner O P Kejariwal gave a two-day ultimatum on Thursday to the director of IIT Delhi, Surendra Prasad, to revoke the suspension of its registrar, Rajendra Singh. The provocation was Rajendra Singh’s complaint that IIT had suspended him for not paying a penalty of Rs 25,000 imposed on him, ironically, by CIC itself for his failure to supply information to an RTI applicant within the prescribed time. Since Rajendra Singh failed to pay the penalty, IIT ordered the recovery of that amount from his salary and made a remittance of Rs 25,000 to CIC, in terms of its order of May 31.

Far from appreciating the trouble the director had evidently taken to comply with its order, CIC is miffed that he went on to suspend Rajendra Singh for disobeying it. Condemning the director’s "autocratic attitude", CIC said that it had empowered him only to recover the registrar’s salary and not take any other action "to deliberately harm his reputation." Without issuing a notice to him to explain his decision, CIC said the director had "very obviously exceeded his authority" by suspending the registrar.

It also held that Prasad had "used the RTI Act and the commission’s order to settle personal scores" with Rajendra Singh. In the process, CIC committed at least two violations while acting on the complaint of somebody who had himself disobeyed its penalty order. l By passing strictures on the IIT director without hearing his side of the story, CIC clearly transgressed the principle of natural justice. l By ordering the director to reinstate the registrar, CIC exceeded its own powers which are limited to adjudicating complaints and appeals on access to information.

In fact, by entertaining Rajendra Singh’s complaint against his suspension, CIC trespassed into the domain of the Central Administrative Tribunal. Not surprisingly, IIT administration is showing no signs of complying with CIC’s order of reinstating Rajendra Singh by the stated deadline. The director is in fact out of town and is due to return only on Sunday. Acting director Bijendra Jain, when contacted, made a cryptic comment: "We have kept all our options open. I am however not in a position to divulge them to you at present." Rajendra Singh on his part declined to explain why he had not paid the penalty to CIC.

Instead, he said that the director in any event had no power to suspend because CIC’s order only talked of penalty. "I am grateful to CIC for vindicating my position and ordering my reinstatement," Rajendra Singh told TOI. Much as the penalty defaulter has reason to be happy, the credibility of the RTI’s appellate body has needlessly taken a beating.

CIC orders IIT to reinstate registrar-Delhi-Cities-The Times of India

[karira]

Anything happened about this finally ?
Can someone please update.

[ganpat1956]

Sorry Karira. I was a bit preoccupied during the second week of last month and hence lost track of this news. Becasue of your persistence, now I have been able to locaste it and I am providing the latest update available--Ganpat.

HC stops CIC's order to reinstate suspended IIT-Delhi Registrar

LESS than a week after the Central Information Commission (CIC) directed the IIT-Delhi administration to reinstate its suspended Registrar Col Rajendra Singh, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed the order.

The High Court issued notices to CIC and its Commissioner O P Kejriwal, who delivered the order, on a petition filed by IIT, asking them to file their replies by November 6.
In its order sated August 2, the CIC had asked IIT Director Prof Surendra Prasad to reinstate Singh within the next two working days.

Information Commissioner O P Kejriwal had then said that it appears the institute director suspended Singh to settle "personal scores".

The CIC had also said that it had only authorised and empowered Prasad to recover the penalty from the salary of the registrar but not to suspend him. Singh was suspended on June 27, a day after he approached the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) seeking an investigation into "misappropriation of funds at IIT Delhi".

Singh had sought investigations into an order issued to him by the IIT administration for release of Endowment Funds for foreign junkets of faculty members during the first week of July this year. Later, he moved CIC challenging his suspension. As per Kejriwal's order, IIT was supposed to revoke Singh's suspension by Tuesday.

However, with the HC stay on CIC order, Kejriwal said the commission would study the order and file its reply. "IIT suspended Singh citing his failure to pay CIC penalty in a case as a reason but the CIC has already received the penalty, which makes the entire premise on which the suspension is based flawed. We'll stick to our order," said Kejriwal.

Earlier, CIC had imposed the penalty on Singh for his non-compliance of its direction to provide documents to one D V Bhandari. In its petition, IIT has, however, alleged that the CIC passed the order asking it to revoke Singh's suspension without impleading either the institution or its director. CIC has no jurisdiction to pass such order, IIT added.

HC stops CIC's order to reinstate suspended IIT-Delhi Registrar - Yahoo! India News

[Debashis Basu]

This order of CIC is certainly beyond jurisdiction of RTI Act 2005. Delhi High court has stayed it and possibly quash the orderin final hearing.

[colnrkurup]

Thank God ! IIT is maintaining its self respect

[colnrkurup]

This is defenitly a highhandedness of CIC. Anyone with little common sense know that CIC has no such powers as I had pointed out earlier. Has anyone know the final out come?

[ganpat1956]

Originally Posted by colnrkurup

Has anyone know the final out come?

Colonel Sir,
Matters at High Court level are never decided that fast.