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| Provide copy of KAS officer's PRC: SIC to GAD | | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, May 22: In a significant order, the State Information Commission (SIC) has directed that Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) of a KAS officer be provided under Right to Information (RTI) Act to an information seeker.
The SIC set aside General Administration Department's (GAD) previous order wherein the said information was denied citing reasons that documents sought is a third party information.
Details available with Early Times reveal that one Parvez Ahmad Shera, of Channi Himmat, Jammu, had sought information from the GAD regarding PRC and RBA certificates of a KAS officer namely Shafaqat Majeed Bhat, son of Abdul Majeed Bhat, who appeared in Combined Competitive Examinations in 2009 under the RBA category but was selected under open merit category at serial No. 9 of the appointment order No. 434-GAD of 2011 dated 08.04.2011.
The appeal came up for hearing before SIC on 08.03.2019. Parvez was not present during the hearing. The First Appellate Authority (FAA) of GAD and the Public Information Officer (PIO) were present during the hearing. The PIO submitted that since Shafaqat was selected by the PSC in open category, as such he did not produce any RBA certificate to the GAD at the time of appointment/ joining as Junior Scale KAS officer. As such, the category certificate was not available with GAD.
However, pursuant to the directions given by the SIC in its order dated 17.04.2018, third party proceedings were undertaken under section 11 of the J&K RTI Act, 2009 and Shafaqat was asked by GAD vide communication dated 24.04.2018 to submit a copy of category certificate, if any, available with him and also indicate his willingness to disclose the said information to the appellant. However Shafaqat neither furnished the copy of category certificate nor offered his views about the disclosure of the information.
The appeal again came up for hearing before SIC on 22.04.2019. The appellant was present in person during the hearing. The APIO (Mukhtar Ahmad, Section Officer), GAD represented the PIO during the hearing. Pursuant to the interim order dated 08.03.2019, the PIO, the PSC filed a written statement dated 28.03.2019 informing the Commission that the old records pertaining to competition as well as Departmental Examination from 1980 to 2012 has got destroyed/damaged beyond recognition due to devastating floods in 2014 and as such RBA certificate, if any, produced by Shafaqat in 2009 is not forthcoming from the records.
The appellant submitted that apart from the RBA certificate, he had also sought copy of the PRC submitted by Shafaqat at the time of appointment. In terms of rules governing the employment in the state, a person is eligible to seek employment in the State only if he is a permanent resident of the state.
While disposing off the 2nd appeal Information Commissioner M A Mir in his order said: "While allowing Shafaqat Majeed Bhat to join, the GAD would definitely have obtained a copy of the PRC from the concerned officer before allowing him to join the service. Such documents should be available in the personal file of the concerned officer maintained by the GAD. The PIO, GAD cannot, therefore, deny information at least relating to PRC to the appellant. The appeal is accordingly disposed of with a direction to the PIO, GAD to provide a copy of PRC submitted by Shafaqat Majeed Bhat at the time of joining the government service within a period of one week. The APIO, GAD who was present during the hearing assured the Commission that the information would be provided to the appellant within a week. In case, the PIO, GAD fails to provide copy of PRC of Shafaqat Majeed Bhat to the appellant within the aforesaid period, the appellant shall be at liberty to file a complaint against the PIO, GAD for non compliance." |
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