It WAS a rap on the knuckles and, at the same time, a crash course on the Right to Information (
RTI) Act for the Navi Mumbai police when Maharashtra’s Chief Information Commissioner Suresh Joshi arrived at Uran on Thursday.
The occasion was a hearing on a grievance lodged by Navi Mumbai resident Ajay Marathe against the Navi Mumbai police—they’d rejected seven of his appeals against orders of public information officers (
PIO) without conducting a hearing. Joshi conducted a special hearing at the CIDCO guesthouse at Uran where top police officials including Police Commissioner Ramrao Wagh were present and explained painstakingly to the gathered police officials the importance of the sunshine law.
The belief that the Act does not mandate the conducting of a hearing is incorrect, a belief arising out of ignorance of the Act. The information commissioner quoted Section 19 (5) of the Act under which the onus to prove that denial of information is justified remains with the
PIO who denies the request. It is only through a hearing that such a denial can be justified, he said. “Believe me. I am the last word for
RTI in the state,” he added, to senior police officers.
Joshi also expressed concern that the Navi Mumbai police commissionerate has only one
PIO, emphasized the need to issue prompt replies, especially when information sought is available readily.
Earlier Joshi had been piqued when Wagh did not show up for a hearing on October 18. Deputy Commissioner of Police Shashikant Mahavarkar, officiating as the first appellate authority, was the only senior officer who’d turned up. Joshi expressed his dismay that of the 74 appeals under
RTI dealt with by the Navi Mumbai police till September 15, not even one applicant had been given a hearing. Joshi had summoned the commissioner for a hearing on November 1, with all the files.
After several of his appeals were rejected by the first appellate authority despite no hearings conducted, Marathe had used the
RTI once again—this time, seeking precise details of all first appeals filed by information seekers to the Navi Mumbai police. “The reason I have come here today and am explaining the Act is that I want Navi Mumbai police to be a model organization for implementation of
RTI,” Joshi said.