Delhi High Court PIO issued Penalty Notice

[sidmis]

Delhi High Court PIO issued Penalty Notice

Admiting a complaint case (Complaint No. CIC/WB/C/2007/00445 dated 19.08.2007) by Ms. Shruti Singh Chauhan the Hon. CIC Mr. Wajahat Habibullah has issued notice to the PIO of Delhi High Court for imposition of penalty u/s 20(1).

The complainant submitted her application on 23.05.2007. But she did not received any information within the stipulated time.

"The Commission has decided to admit Ms. Chauhan’s complaint petition u/s 18 (1) (c) of the said act and hereby directs the PIO, High Court of Delhi to respond to the request for information to complainant Ms. Shruti Singh Chauhan within 15 working days from the date of receipt of this decision."

"The PIO is further directed to show cause as to why a penalty of Rs.250/- per day from the date when the information fell due i.e. 23.06.2007 to the date when the information is actually supplied, not exceeding Rs.25, 000/- should not be imposed on him under Section 20(1) of the RTI Act. The PIO will make his submission in writing to us on or before 11.02.2008."

http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/Decision_27012008_01.pdf

Sidharth

[sidmis]

However there are two anomalies found in this decision.

1. Typo : "Announced on 27.1.’08. Notice of this decision is given free to cost to the parties."
   
   
   Incidentally 27.01.2008 was a Sunday.
   
2. The Delhi High Court prescribes a Penalty structure, which is different from the RTI Act, 2005.
   "8. Penalties-(i) Whoever being bound to supplying information fails to furnish the information asked for under the Act within the time specified or fails to communicate the rejection order by notification shall be liable to pay penalty upto 50 Rupees per day for the delayed period beyond 30 days subject to maximum of 500 Rupees per application filed under rule 3, as may be determined by the appellate authority."

http://delhihighcourt.nic.in/rti.doc

Let's see how this decision stands upto the High Court's Scrutiny.

Sidharth

[sidmis]

Typo : "Announced on 27.1.’08. Notice of this decision is given free to cost to the parties."

There is no typographical error in the date.
As per information received from CIC, The complaint was decided and announced on 27.1.'08(Sunday) itself.

Sidmis

[maneesh]

I just wonder now CIC has started working on Sunday as well !!

[karira]

Finally, penalty was not imposed in this case:

http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/WB-10042008-06.pdf

[taurus]

It is really amazing to see how far the institutions are reluctant to part with even as innocuous an information as appointment to class III and IV employees. It is also amazing to see that they have a committee to scrutinize all RTI applications!!!!!!

[karira]

Originally Posted by taurus

It is really amazing to see how far the institutions are reluctant to part with even as innocuous an information as appointment to class III and IV employees. It is also amazing to see that they have a committee to scrutinize all RTI applications!!!!!!

India is a land of committees !