GIC slaps Rs 25K fine on sub-registrar

[karira]

As reported by TNN in timesofindia.indiatimes.com on 3 August 2008:
GIC slaps Rs 25K fine on sub-registrar -Ahmedabad-Cities-The Times of India

GIC slaps Rs 25K fine on sub-registrar

A sub-registrar , instead of handing over a property deed after registering it to the new owner, gave it to the seller's advocate. And when the owner demanded his original deed under Right to Information (RTI) Act the officer ignored the demand.

Now the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) has slapped a penalty of Rs 25,000 on him, in his capacity as public information officer (PIO) and the sub-registrar at Kalyanpur in Jamnagar. Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated by the department and GIC has awarded a compensation of Rs 4,0000 to the applicant.

Navneet Thakkar of Dwarka under RTI had demanded to know from PIO why his deed was not returned even after one year of payment of stamp duty and interest.

The PIO said the deed had been misplaced and would be returned after locating it. On Thakkar's appeal, the appellate authority (AA) held that the PIO had violated provisions of RTI as even on the day of the hearing the deed had not been returned . As the sub-registrar had not returned the original deed within the stipulated time, he had violated provisions of the Registration Act. Holding this as dereliction of duty under the Gujarat Rajya Seva Sisth and Appeal Rules, the AA ordered return of deed to Thakkar and to initiate disciplinary proceedings .

The PIO submitted that after the AA's order he had been issued a warning by the competent authority and a certified copy of the deed was sent to Thakkar.

But GIC wondered that if the PIO could not find the original deed then how an authentic certified copy could be issued? GIC held that the grounds taken by the PIO was unreasonable and found it to be a fit case for imposing a penalty. GIC observed that in a number of cases decided by it penalties have been imposed on PIOs of the Stamp Duty Evaluation Tantra, for not furnishing information, particularly returning the original deed to the relevant party despite the provisions of Registration Act. This showed rampant disregard for accountability and transparency in the public authority.

"A situation where a number of PIOs belonging to one public authority are imposed penalties under the RTI does not speak well of the practices of the public authority," censured GIC.

[jps50]

In addition to penalty, compensation of Rs.40000/- and disciplinary action are more important to wake up the errant PIOs, who think they are law unto themselves! This is a good example for CIC and other SICs to emulate, if they want that PIOs and FAAs should properly discharge their duties under RTI. This will reduce appeals/complaints to Info Commissions.