KIC imposes max penalty

[ganpat1956]

Karnataka Information Commission imposed a penalty of Rs.25000/- on a Public Information Officer who not only failed to failed to provide the information but also wilfully ignored the summons issued by the Commission to appear before the commission personally.

Mr. Ranganath, Additional Tahasildar of Yalahanka failed to provide the information sought by one Mr. Aswath Narayana Gowda regarding burial ground of Kodigehally Hally Village. Mr. Gowda had sought information on 20.12.2006 and despite adjournment for three times and direction from the Karnataka Information Commission to provide the required information, the PIO wilfully disobeyed the orders.

Mr. K K Misra, Chief Information Commissioner imposed a penalty and directed the Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore Urban District to deduct the penalty from the salary of the PIO in five equal instalment of Rs.5000/- This is the first order ever issued by the karnataka Information Commission imposing a maximum penalty of Rs.25000/- under the Right to Information Act.

[posted by Shri Veeresh Bellur on Humjanenge]

[neeraj Chauhan]

I guess Penalty imposition is good enough but dont u feel there should be some kinda administrative or Discipilinary action also after proper inquiry into detailed reasons of non supply of information in case it is wilful and intentional to ignore he RTI Act . Here we can say RTI act needs to some teeth before it can really become tiger.
bye

[Satish Gupta]

The Rs 25,000/- penalty is "per incident". Hopefully some RTI activist will file RTI applications with the same PIO, and if he ignores it again he could be penalized again.

[colnrkurup]

We have been reading reports from CIC and SICs about huge penalties impossed by them. What happened to the amount. Is there any machinery to check that the penalty has been realised ? to my knowledge even the CIC does not have any separate "Head of Account" The condition of SICs are worse. Untill and unless there is separate Head ofAccount for RTI receipts (Penalty), and someone tallying the figures I doubt its realisation.