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As reported by Vijay Mohan in The Tribune on 25 January 2008:
The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Punjab

Panel issues notice to Punjab
Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 25

In response to the activists raising objections over the RTI Rules, notified recently by the Punjab government, a full Bench of the Punjab Information Commission has issued notice to the Secretary of Administrative Reforms department asking it to reply to the issues raised in this regard.

A complaint under Section 18 of the RTI Act had been filed on the issue by Capt Navdeep Singh, a high court lawyer, in which it had been averred that Punjab RTI Rules 2007 framed by the state government were in direct contravention of the Act.

The rules, circulated to all departments recently, make seeking information a tough call and complicate the process for obtaining information, which was detrimental to the interest of the public and defeat the purpose of the act, the complainant contended.

The state government rules provide reasons of rejection, which go beyond the Act, according to the complaint. Form--E of the Punjab Rules provides that information requests can be rejected on grounds that the information was available on department’s website, information was already available in published material and the identity of the information seeker was not satisfactory.



The Punjab government had further notified that RTI requests could only be made in on a prescribed form, a stipulation, which contravened Section 6 of the Act under which RTI requests could be made on plain paper or electronically.

The form prescribed by the government seeks answers from RTI applicants on 9 questions before it could be processed by the PIO concerned. The Rules also expect all information seekers to first browse the website of the concerned department before information was sought from it and prohibit the dissemination of information under the RTI if it was already available on the internet.

The commission directed that before coming up with a reply on the complaint, the Secretary Administrative Reforms should apply its mind and consider the points raised in the complaint, especially portions inconsistent with the act.