CIC issued directions to Department of Higher Education, Ministry of HRD to pay compensation of Rs. 10,000 to Appellant u/s 19(8) (b) of the RTI Act

[sabharwal786]

The Orders of the CIC are as under:

File No.CIC/SM/A/2011/000699

Name of the Appellant : Moh. Haider,
A20/82, Jairgular, Koyla Bazar,
Varanasi – 221 001, UP.


Name of the Public Authority : CPIO, Prime Minister’s Office,
South Block, New Delhi.

CPIO, Department of Higher Education,
Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi.

In section 19(8) (b) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, we direct the During the hearing, the Appellant submitted that, belatedly, he had received some response from the CPIO of the Department of Higher Education in which he had been advised to approach the BHU for whatever information he wanted in the matter. Thus, nearly one year after he filed his original RTI application, he has yet to get the exact information he wanted. All this has happened because of the extremely casual manner in which his RTI application, received on transfer from the PMO, was dealt with in the Department of Higher Education. In the process, the Appellant has suffered a lot of detriment and loss by going through the entire appellate process. Therefore, in our view, he deserves to be compensated. In exercise of the powers vested in the CIC in section 19(8) (b) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, we direct the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of HRD to pay to the Appellant a compensation of Rs. 10,000 as compensation for this. We further direct that the CPIO shall ensure that this amount is sent to the Appellant within 15 working days of receiving this order by way of a demand draft.