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| Rs 25,000 penalty imposed on Technical Officer to Chief Engineer PHE, Jammu | | For delay in providing information | | Sumit Sharma
JAMMU, Dec 14: In a landmark judgement the Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission (SIC) has imposed a penalty of Rs. 25,000 on V.K. Bhagat, then PIO/ Technical Officer to Chief Engineer P.H.E, Jammu at present Executive Engineer, P.D.C office, Trikuta Nagar, Jammu for willful delay of information to an information-seeker under the provisions of Right to Information Act, 2009.
The penalty came to effective on the second appeal by RTI activist Raman Sharma who in his complaint alleged that he had not received information from PIO even after long elapse of due time period. Raman sought details of RTI applications received by PHE department, list of their disposal and pending, but PIO did not replay the RTI query even after filing complaint to 1st Appellate Authority. Earlier, Commission sought reply from PIO of the delay and in letter no PHE/PS/1180, the PIO failed to substantiate the grounds for delay even he admitted delay on the part of him for providing information to the information seeker.
In its decision No SIC-J-C-93/2012/384, S.K Sharma, State Information Commissioner observed "The delay caused by the PIO in furnishing the information to the information seeker is unreasonable and without any sufficient cause and as such he deserves to be penalized u/s 17 of the J&K RTI Act, 2009. The penalty to be imposed on the PIO is calculated as (ii) Date of application u/s 6 of the J&K RTI Act 2009 for seeking information is 17.11.2011. (ii) due date of passing order by PIO u/s 7 is 16.12.2011 (ii) Information provided to the information seeker on 23.7.2012 (iii) Delay in furnishing the information (No of days) 215 (V) Penalty to be imposed for each day is Rs 250/- 215 days X Rs 250 and amount goes to Rs 53,750. The total amount of such penalty shall not exceed Rs 25000 u/s 17 clause(1) under J&K RTI Act, 2009. Therefore an amount of Rs 25,000 is imposed as penalty."
The Commission further ordered as "the Drawing and Disbursing Officer in the office of Chief Engineer, P.H.E, Jammu will ensure deduction of Rs 25,000 from the salary of V.K. Bhagat the then PIO/Technical Officer to the Chief Engineer P.H.E Jammu at present Executive Engineer, P.D.C Office, Trikuta Nagar, Jammu in five equal installments and remit it to the Government Account with an intimation to this Commission. In case of any default committed by the DDO in this regard, he, will be personally liable for making the payment towards the Government Account. The order has to be complied within 15 days from the date of receipt of the order." |
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