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| Slaps penalty of Rs 15000 on Secretary Housing Board | | SIC takes serious note of RTI Act violation | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Nov 29: In its crusade to ensure implementation of the Right to Information Act 2009, the State Information Commission (SIC) has slapped a penalty of Rs 15000 on the Secretary of J&K Housing Board as he failed to provide information to an RTI applicant within the stipulated time of 30 days. The penalty amount would be deducted from the salary of the Secretary who is also the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the J&K Housing Board in two equal installments.
As per details one R.L. Sethi a resident of Mohalla Afghan, Jammu had filed an RTI application to seek some information before the Managing Director (MD), J&K Housing Board on 22.02.2011 which was received in the office of Managing Director on 22.02.2011. The MD was under legal obligation to forward the application to the Secretary cum Public Information Officer (PIO) within 5 days of the receipt of the application and the PIO had to pass an order within a maximum period of 35 days including the period of forwarding. The records reveal that MD had not forwarded the RTI application to the PIO within 5 days. The order was to be passed on 27.3.2011 which was not done. The PIO Housing Board woke up only after receiving the State Information Commission notice dated: 27.5.2011.
Having failed to receive any information, the complainant filed complaint before the State Information Commission (SIC) on 8.4.2011 requesting therein for looking into his case and for further necessary action against the defaulter. Registry of the Commission issued 7 days notice to the PIO vides No: SIC/J/Comp/87/2011 dated: 27.5.2011. Secretary of the Housing Board responded to the notice of the Commission vide his letter No: HB-1510-11 dated: 22.6.2011 with a copy to the appellant R L Sethi.
The Registry of the State Information Commission accordingly fixed hearing of the case and the Commission in its decision dated: 18.8.2011 directed the PIO to explain within one month's time the reasons for not imposing penalty on him under Section 17 of the State RTI Act 2009 for delaying the information. The PIO vide his letter dated: 25.8.2011, received in this Commission on 9.9.2011, has pleaded that the office premises of J&K Housing Board was under "major renovation for the last more than one year with the result most of the record remain in an un-organized manner and had requested for condonation of the delay.
The order passed by CIC G R Sufi on 19th Nov 2013 reads as:
"From the reply of the PIO it appears that the PIO has shown total disregard to the provisions of the law refusing to discharge his statutory duties on frivolous grounds. It has nowhere been established that the office was closed and non operational during the renovation period. He has failed to give any reasonable and justified explanation. Therefore the Commission in accordance with the powers vested in it under Section 17 of the State RTI Act holds PIO R.P Sharma of J&K Housing Board, Jammu to be in default in terms of Section 6 read with section 17 of the State RTI Act and hereby impose penalty on him which is calculated as under. The delay in passing an order is 85 days. There may, however, be some dislocation of records resulting in some delay. However, it cannot be imagined that there will be delay of 85 days and the officer did not attend any other work. The intention of the officer in not complying with the provisions of the State RTI Act are clear that till the Commission issues notice, he does not do any action for passing the order. He should have informed the complainant that because of renovation being done in the office, there may be some delay.
Nothing of the sort has been done. Therefore, taking an overall view, delay is restricted to two months giving the benefit of doubt to the PIO for any minor dislocation of the record during the period of renovation in the office:-
1. No of days of default 85 days
2. Delay restricted to two months i.e 60 days
3. Penalty to be imposed for each day from the date of receipt of application i.e 22.2.2011 Rs. 250/- per day to date of providing the information 22.6.2011
4. Total amount of penalty imposed Rs. 15000/-
The Drawing and Disbursing officer of J&K Housing Board will ensure deduction of penalty amount of Rs. 15000/- (Rupees Fifteen thousand only) from the salary of Shri R.P. Sharma Secretary-cum-PIO in two equal installments from the month of December 2013 and January 2014 and remit it to the Government Account Head "0070-other administrative services" with an intimation to this Commission. The DDO is further directed to submit a compliance report along with a copy of deduction certificate/challan with TV No and date to this Commission within 5 days of the compliance ". |
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