Information requested for records which are 12 years old

[maneesh]

If an applicant request some record which are quite old (say 10 - 12 years) and voluminous in nature running into tonnes of pages.
Further, as per the law all information cannot be provided only some information culled out from those records can be provided.

What option CPIO has got?

It will involve huge amount of effort and wastage of man power.

[kushal]

It depends upon many factors:

1. If the record in question preservation period is over, the information cannot be provided.
2. Secondly as Section 7 (9) of RTI act states:

   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.

   The CPIO has to apply this section while deciding about the exemption for information.

The related recision can be downloaded from here:
http://www.rtiindia.org/forum/attach...28112006_6.pdf

[maneesh]

What are the preservation period of the records. I have read the public record act too but no specific timing found.

[kushal]

I think Maneesh the preservation period is department specific. For example for Post Office the preservation period of registered list is 18 months, and is notified in the Post Office Preservation of Record gazettee.

[ganpat1956]

Even within the same department, time period for preservation of records vary, depending on their nature and importance.

For example, in banking industry, records like account opening forms have to be preserved for ever, while the cheques and remittance challans are destroyed after a period of 10 or 15 years.

Likewise, various departments are having their own regulations and rules regarding the maintenance an preservation of various types of records.

[colnrkurup]

The defenition of "right to information " given in Section 2(j) is note-worthy. The Architect of the Act has used the word " which is held " . This means that irrespective of the orders on their destruction if the information sought for is " held" and is proved as "held" I don't think that anyone can escape from providing it. Of cource subject to all other conditions as per the Act.

[Satish Gupta]

I would just like to provide information as to how such a case in handled in USA. First of all, the PA has no obligation to provide any answer to any questions, only copies of existing records. If the records are huge and some of the records are not to be disclosed under FOIA (similar to RTI in India), then PA has to make an index of the records and give an explanation as to which parts are not to be disclosed, and for what reason.

The newspapers have requested copies of huge records consisting of over 2.5 lakh pages. The PA had to make an index and supply the index to the requesters. Then requester had the option to ask for specific records, and challenge the ones that PA refused to disclose.

[kushal]

The newspapers have requested copies of huge records consisting of over 2.5 lakh pages. The PA had to make an index and supply the index to the requesters. Then requester had the option to ask for specific records, and challenge the ones that PA refused to disclose.

That Sound really interesting. It looks like inspection of record and then deciding upon which one to disclose. This could be one of the suggestion in our RTI implementation too.

[akanksha.chopra]

Hi

I find this very strange. Indexing suchvoluminous data is very difficult and time consuming. It is also not practicable. Is it not possible for the CIC to issue directives that government records should compulsorily be in electronic format except where it is not possible legally. Governments certainly cannot claim lack of resources. Also if they claim lack of technical expertise, the NIC or other similar agencies can always ben roped in.

I think the primary purpose of RTI should beto bring transparency and eliminate corruption. RTI applications should not be made to inconvenience public authorities with r equests for voluminous information.

Akanksha Chopra

The newspapers have requested copies of huge records consisting of over 2.5 lakh pages. The PA had to make an index and supply the index to the requesters. Then requester had the option to ask for specific records, and challenge the ones that PA refused to disclose.

[Satish Gupta]

"I find this very strange. Indexing such voluminous data is very difficult and time consuming. It is also not practicable. "

I think I need to clarify the meaning of "index", in this context. The court in USA have ordered the PA to make an "index", where the data is large and PA wants to release some, and refuse release of some of the data. The index in this case consists only of name or identification of different files, and brief description of their contents. This is not a comprehensive index of all words used in the files, or anything like what you see in an index of a well indexed textbook.

Satish Gupta