Re: [RTI INDIA] Please advise- do RTI act recognise Deemed PIO

Technically there is no "Deemed PIO" in the RTI Act, 2005. However, the designated CPIO / SPIO as the case may be may request assistance from his senior or junior officers Under Section 5(4) or 5(5) of the RTI Act 2005. It is not necessary for the CPIO to appoint them as such. So even if the CPIO requests some information from a Section Officer who is custodian and if the latter fails to provide the information to the CPIO in time say within 10 days, the designated CPIO should either take action against the concerned SO or write to senior office of the SO. The CPIO has to do this well before the prescribed time limit Under 7(1) has transgressed. Any failure on the part of the CPIO to do this, invite full penal action on the CPIO and not the concerned Section Officer. No amount of blame game can save the CPIO from penalty. He had his chance, but he failed in his duty to take necessary action against the erring Section Officer. After all the onus is on the CPIO that he acted diligently. In case the CPIO did act and sent warning communication to the concerned SO or the senior officer of the concerned Officer, then the CPIO has a chance escape penalty. Manoj Pai --- On Sat, 10/23/10, KRISHNA MOORTHI <tnkeealhw@yahoo.co.in> wrote: From: KRISHNA MOORTHI <tnkeealhw@yahoo.co.in> Subject: Re: [RTI INDIA] Please advise- do RTI act recognise Deemed PIO To: rti_india@googlegroups.com Date: Saturday, October 23, 2010, 8:04 AM Dear Mr Mohit   The goal of RTI Act to bring transparancy in a activities of Public Authorities and thus the prime objective is to get the information from PA.   PIO's are nominated by each PA's.but it is not necessarily to have all the information with the PIO. PIO must collect the information from so many persons like another PIO in the same PA, another PIO of another PA, Subordinates of PIO etc.   In reality PIO's are some extent familiar with RTI but not his subordinates.   When the question of penalty comes the default official (Deemed PIO) are the worst sufferer. When I invite an office to sed all staff for one hr training, most of the Dept deputes only PIO & APIO.   In my comiplation of lesson from penalty (available in CIC website in a related article) most of the Deemed PIOs are penalised.  T N Krishnamoorthi --- On Fri, 22/10/10, Mohit Goel <mr_mohitg@yahoo.com> wrote: From: Mohit Goel <mr_mohitg@yahoo.com> Subject: [RTI INDIA] Please advise- do RTI act recognise Deemed PIO To: rti_india@googlegroups.com Date: Friday, 22 October, 2010, 3:06 PM Dear sirs Kindly advise do RTI act diff recognised deemed PIO and PIO . In one of my 2 cases related to DOE CIC gave decision in June this year and found that there was delay in providing info for which no satisfactory reasons were given. On date of hearing of cases deemed PIO was present and told that she has given information to PIO on time and it was PIO mistake of delay CIC issued show cause hearing to both, On show cause notice hearing, PIO present herself and stated that her junior ( deemed PIO) failed to provide information on time and gave this in writing to CIC CIC again issued notice and asked both to present on next show cause hearing which happened in sept,10. This time deemed PIO was present and she blamed PIO of not providing the info i made myself present on both show cause hearing dates and but unable to pursue office of Mr SG to raise penalty on PIO. Now staff of MR Sg office says that they will again issue notices and call for both PIO again. it is being 4 1/2 months now that matter is pending in nutshell they are not ready to close the matter and delaying it. is there any way out of this situation please advise regards Mohit