Need Help: RTI First Appeal sent by Appellate Authority to CPIO

[infogirl]

Since the CPIO did not respond to my RTI Application for over a month and a half, I submitted the first appeal for deemed refusal to the appellate authority.
It appears that the first appellate authority has forwarded my appeal against the CPIO to the CPIO itself, who has forwarded all correspondence [the initial application and the appeal] to another officer asking him to deal with the matter and sent a copy of the letter to me asking me to contact that particular officer for all further details.
It seems the CPIO and Appellate Authority are washing their hands off the whole matter, instead of dealing with the case and giving me the information, and asking me to deal with a new officer directly.
What do I do now?

[karira]

If you have filed a First Appeal, the FAA must hear the appeal and pass either a written or spoken order. DoPT has issued detailed guidelines for AA's and their role. Please see:

Instructions for First Appellate Authority

FAA cannot by any means pass his responsibility to the CPIO. Just recheck if in your case, he has passed a spoken order and then asked the CPIO to take some action.

Once the matter has reached First Appeal stage, the CPIO cannot invoke Sec 5(4) or 5(5) of the RTI Act and ask some other officer to deal with the matter. In his letter to the other officer (copy with you) , has the CPIO said anything about Sec 5(4) or 5(5).

It will be helpful , if you can upload or type in the original application, the first appeal and the response of the FAA (if any) and the CPIO. Members will be in a better position to guide you. In case you so wish, you can delete names etc. as well as any other portions which you do not want to reveal.

[infogirl]

The CPIO has quoted section 5(4)

[mpai]

Infogirl, you are running out of time in filing a complain against the CPIO, with the CIC Under Section 18.

Better do it now

Manoj

[opsharma]

Infogirl , please go through post 2 above again ( Karira's ) ,and do provide information as requested at last para of post 2 ,if you are looking for correct course of action. It does not help not to provide correct and reasonably detailed information of the case .Specific names need not be mentioned .
As mentioned above its too late for CPIO to invoke section 5(4),he should have done that NOT LATER THAN 5 DAYS FROM THE DATE OF RECEIPT OF APPLICATION (Section 6 (3) ).

[sidmis]

Originally Posted by mpai

Infogirl, you are running out of time in filing a complain against the CPIO, with the CIC Under Section 18.

Better do it now

Manoj

Hello Manoj,

Is there are a time limit prescribed for filing a complaint in the Act?

Or is it a general caution to speed up?

Sidharth

[karira]

sidmis,

Please see the following thread:

IC O P Kejariwal misinterprets the RTI Act 2005 !

infogirl,

It is infructious for the PIO to invoke Sec 5(4) after you have filed the First Appeal.
He should have invoked Sec 5(4) at the initial stage itself.

[murgie]

While the Appellate Authority of a PA is supposed to be independent of the CPIO, in the 2 PAs I have had to deal with, the first appeal to the AA is quite meaningless, as they are essentially one office inside the PA. In SEBI and RBI, there is not even an attempt to pretend that the AA is acting independently of the CPIO.

That said, what you can take a little cheer in, is that if you document carefully that the AA has not applied his mind, it can help when you file a second appeal with the CIC. My only experiences of 2nd appeals have been much more encouraging than first appeals. There is more evidence of public-spiritedness in the CIC than in PAs I've banged my head against. Best,

Murgie

Originally Posted by infogirl

Since the CPIO did not respond to my RTI Application for over a month and a half, I submitted the first appeal for deemed refusal to the appellate authority.
It appears that the first appellate authority has forwarded my appeal against the CPIO to the CPIO itself, who has forwarded all correspondence [the initial application and the appeal] to another officer asking him to deal with the matter and sent a copy of the letter to me asking me to contact that particular officer for all further details.
It seems the CPIO and Appellate Authority are washing their hands off the whole matter, instead of dealing with the case and giving me the information, and asking me to deal with a new officer directly.
What do I do now?