Prayer for Compensation in Appeal cases

[Debashis Basu]

Should a reasonable compensation (even a token compensation) u/s 19(8) (B) of RTI ACT be a part of the Appeal format " Prayer & Relief Sought " section along with a break-up of such compensation in " Grounds of Such Prayer Relief" section ?

Recently CIC has awarded a compensation of Rs 1000/- towards harassment of a ration card applicant by Food & Supply Dept ( Ration Officer).

Appeal u/s 18 :830/ICPB/2007 (F No. PBC / 07 / 131)

In Chair : Ms Padma Balasubramanian - Information Commissioner

Decision date : August 22, 2007

Brief Fact :

Appeal was preferred by Mr Vijayendra Singh against - Durector of Food Supply for non-receipt of his APL ration card for a long time and there was no response from CPIO to his application under RTI Act.

Information Commissioner's notice for hearing was enough to propelthe Rationing Officer in to action and kept the Ration Card ready for delivery.

Information Commissioner issued show cause notice to explain the dlay in responding the application under RTI Act and alos imposed a fine of Rs 1000/- u/s 19(8) (b) payable within 15 days from the date of order for harassing the applicant.

NOTE : There were no such prayer of compensation. This was awarded by Information Commissioner on su-moto basis. My suggestion is to include the claim of a justifiable compensation as claim with appeal application itself in "Prayer & Relief Sought " section and in "Ground of Such Prayer relief" section.

[Abhinav Bohare]

Can you submit a Poll for the same

As I think the Point raised in pivotal