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| Reveal 60- year old Info under RTI | | CIC's direction to Sessions court Baramulla | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, May 25 : The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of J&K State Information Commission G R Sufi has directed District & Sessions Court Baramulla to reveal a 60 -year- old information to an information seeker under State Right to Information Act (J&K RTI Act 2009). The CIC has taken a strong note of non compliance of section 4 (1) (b) of State RTI Act by the District & Sessions Court Baramulla as the court (public authority) has failed to digitize its court records from the last 6 years since the RTI Act 2009 is enforced in J&K State. Details available with Early Times reveal that a 2nd appeal was filed by one Abdul Ahad Bhat, a resident of Raram Tangmarg against District & Session Judge, Baramulla (PIO). Showkat Hussain, Administrative Officer in the office of District & Session Judge, Baramulla and the appellant attended the hearing before Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) G R Sufi of State Information Commission (SIC). Brief facts of the case are that the appellant filed an RTI application before PIO office of the District & Session Judge, Baramulla on 13-02-2014, seeking copies of Parcha-Decree , Tasfia nama related to case titled Rahim & Mohammad and Ali & Khaliq v/s Gaffar Mir S/o Razak Mir R/o Rarem Tangmarg district Baramulla. The case was filed before Sub Judge Baramulla in the year 1956 and the decision was announced in November 1959. PIO District and Sessions Court Baramulla passed an order on 13-03-2014. On item 1 of information, PIO has been unable to give information as the appellant had not given specific particulars of the case, neither date of institution or date of decision was given. Similarly on point 2, information was denied by the PIO on the plea that information being as old as 58 years and as no exact date has been given, hence it was not possible to provide information. The facts of the other items of information are also same, i.e., details like no. and nature of the case / decision was not given.
The State Information Commission (SIC) heard both the parties on 24.4.2015 and found that the appellant Abdul Ahmad Bhat R/O Raram Tangmarg has not been in a position to make out the exact case for information vide his RTI application because he has not given exact particulars for obtaining the information. However, appellant the during the 2nd appeal proceedings at SIC stated that during hearing before the PIO, he was asked to produce certain revenue documents related to the information, which he gave, on the basis of which PIO could have given the information.
The order issued by Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) G R Sufi reads as :
"As information is already on the record of PIO, he is directed to give information strictly in accordance with the RTI application after making up the deficiencies, if any. The spirit of the Act is that even if the RTI application is defective, information seeker should have been allowed an opportunity of removing defects and give full details, which would have been enabled the PIO to pass an order and provide information. PIO has not done this so far. PIO is therefore advised that in future RTI applications received should not be summarily and technically rejected, because by denying information under the Act, the information seeker's fundamental right is denied. PIO has also somewhere stated that information could not be given because there is slow digitalization of records"
CIC's order further reads as : " PIO's attention is invited to Section 4 of the J&K RTI Act, 2009 which casts duty on every public authority and obligation to maintain its records duly catalogued. It would be appropriate to reproduce the relevant provisions of the law as under; " Every public authority shall maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilitates the right to information under the Act and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerized are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerized and connected through a network all over the State on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated." The CIC in his order added that the provisions of the law speak about availability of the resources and reasonability of time. CIC in his order said that Commission is of the opinion that nearly 6 years have passed since the enactment of the Act in this State, therefore, reasonability of the time may not be now the reasons for not digitalizing of records. It is high time that the public authorities start doing this job adhering to the provisions of the law. He added that the the District courts are sources of justice and citizenry of the state look to the judicial institutions for upholding the law of the land. Therefore it is hoped that concerned authorities will discharge their duties which are cast on them under the J&K State RTI Act, 2009. |
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