Question: certain clarification in respect of filing a complaint petition

[arunaviswanath]

Very Good Morning

Kindly advice whether filing of an appeal is mandatory before the Public Authorities prior to lodging a complaint under section 18 of the Act 2005 before Central Information Commission or State Information and if so its relevamt rule/section

Thanks
SVR

[karira]

Sponsorer

No, it is not mandatory to file a first appeal (under Sec 19(1)) before complaining to the CIC/SIC (under Sec 18).
A complaint under Sec 18 can be directly lodged with the CIC provided any of the conditions stated in Sec 18(1)(a) to (f) are satisfied.
Please read: Direct Complaints under Sec 18 must be admitted/heard and inquired into by SIC

However, most Commissioners (in the CIC and SIC) are returning direct complaints to the complainant or remanding them back to the PIO/FAA stating something like "to avoid parallel proceedings under Sec 18 and Sec 19........". Sometimes I feel that this is done at the Registry level itself because the Registry staff have no proper understanding of the RTI Act.

In the CIC, there have been 1000's of decisions like this in the last 3 to 6 months. These I feel are to increase the "disposal" rates of the Commission. Many Registry staff in the CIC are only young students working as interns and they have very little knowledge of the nuances of the RTI Act.

For example, just yesterday, I came to know that many of my Complaints are just lying around in the CIC because registry staff thought that "filing a RTI application is a prerequisite for filing a direct complaint" ! I had to sit patiently with them and make them understand the RTI Act for over 1 hour - but they were still not willing to accept. Their claim was that how can the RTI Act itself be invoked, if a RTI application has never been filed in the first place ?

Therefore, as a practical measure, it is better to follow 19(1) and then approach the SIC/CIC, under 19(3) - unless of course you want to make a point, just like I wanted to in the above referred decision of the APIC.

PS: Even after passing the order referred to above, APIC has passed many orders contrary to its own above mentioned order - simply assuming that a vast majority of complainants are not aware.

[jetley]

Please also see the attached high court decision
First appeal not mandatory and workload not reasonable cause for delay under RTI, Kerala High Co.pdf

[kdrmayan]

sir I have not understood Karira's explanation becuase though in my case I have applied under RTI but I am waiting for the decision but so far no info, 30 days appeal period is over but I have not appealled to AA becuase Iam waiting for CPIO response. In this case within 90 days can I file appeal to CIC without appealing to AA.

[abhi987]

I have quoted below section 7(2) of the RTI Act for your immediate reference:

Section 7(2) - If the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, fails to give decision on the request for information within the period specified under sub-section (1), the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, shall be deemed to have refused the request.

If you did not receive a reply from the PIO within 30 days of the date of receipt of your RTI application by the PIO, then as per section 7(2) of the RTI Act the PIO is deemed to have refused your request for information.

In that case, you should have filed a first appeal within the time-limits prescribed under the RTI Act, that is:

PIO received your application on date: 1,
PIO should have replied by date: 1 +30 = 31
If PIO did not reply by 31 it is deemed refusal u/s. 7(2).
First appeal to be filed within next 30 days i.e. 31 + 30 = 61 days from date 1.

In case you have missed out on the time-limits you may file the same RTI application afresh and then this time around, adhere to the time-limits for filing first appeal and then second appeal.

There are three options before you:
1. RTI application u/s. 6(1) > First Appeal u/s. 19(1) before FAA > Second Appeal u/s. 19(3) before Information Commission
2. RTI application u/s. 6(1) > Directly Complaint u/s.18(1) before Information Commission.
3. Direct Complaint u/s. 18(1) before Information Commission.

Although the option no. 2 & 3 are equally valid, (at the present moment) the first option is the most standard and preferable one.

You may please click on the following link to understand the flow of a RTI application: http://www.rtiindia.org/forum/blogs/...plication.html