| Dear All On goind through IC's Order, it is observed that 6 Officials who have attracted penallty in this case are all Deemed PIOs & Sanitary Superintendants of various zones in Delhi. It is a classic case where deemed PIOs have been penalised for causing delay in providing information (as per Sec 5(5) of the Act}.and it should be seen as a trend setting Order. Facts of the case as gleaned through the Order are as follows. Applicant had filed his application on 11.02.10. As per provision of Sec 7(1) information was required to be provided to him by 11.03.10. Information requisitioned was held with different zones and it needed to be collected from different ends. PIO who had received the application, sought the assistance of Sanitary Superintendants (SS) of different zones as per provision of Sec 5(4) of the Act for providing the requisite informataion.He forwarded copy of application to all SS on 18.02.10 and on receiving no response from any end, he followed up this with reminders to all sent on 04.03.10. None of the SS responded with information. They responded after 7 months in September, 2010 after the matter had reached CIC after going through FAA channel in the interregnum. None of SS could explain reasons for not responding to PIO's reference in time. Quoting Sec 19(5) of the Act which states that in any appeal proceedings, the onus to prove that denial of a request was justified shall be on PIO who has denied the request, and finding no reasonable cause for the delay, IC imposed penalty on deemed PIOs for delay of over 100 days as per provision of Sec 5(5). One SS pleaded that he was given an impression by his junior assistant that requisite information has already been sent to PIO, which explanation appeared to be a lame excuse. IC has directed him to bring the concerned junior to appear before the Commission, and if his deposition is not corraborated by the junior before the Commission, further action may be taken against him. This should be an eye opener word of caution who cook up fake excuses to defend their in-action / willful delays. S K NANGIA
--- On Sun, 24/10/10, vishalkudchadkar <v_kudz@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: vishalkudchadkar <v_kudz@yahoo.com>
Subject: [HumJanenge] 6 officials told to pay 25k for RTI violation
To: HumJanenge@yahoogroups.co.in
Date: Sunday, 24 October, 2010, 4:50 AM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/6-officials-told-to-pay-25k-for-RTI-violation/articleshow/6800507.cms#ixzz13E8lgssXThe Central Information Commission (CIC) has slapped the maximum penalty ever on any agency at one time by directing six MCD officials to cough up Rs 25,000 each for withholding information related to transfer of staff. These errant MCD officers will have to pay Rs 1.5 lakh for a 100-day delay in providing information under the RTI Act. Noting the delay in disclosure of information, information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said, "Since the delay in providing the information has been over 100 days, the Commission is passing an order penalising all six officers Rs 25,000 which is the maximum penalty in the Act." The applicant Ravi Bhushan Bali had in February 2010 asked for information related to direct recruitment, ad-hoc promotion and regular promotion of 13 officers. Bali has also asked details of how many officials had been transferred from DDA to MCD and under what terms and conditions. He also sought information on the status of his own promotion that has been pending before a higher authority. In his reply in April 2010, MCD PIO had argued that the department was still in the process of collecting the information but could not provide the relevant facts. In fact, it was only after a rap on the knuckles by the CIC in September that the municipal corporation provided Bali with service books of all the sanitary superintendents and allowed the applicant inspection of the relevant files. Arguing that the Commission was obliged to levy a penalty if it found that information had not been furnished without reasonable cause, Gandhi in his order said no reasonable cause for delay had been cited in this particular case. He has asked the MCD commissioner to recover Rs 25,000 each from the salary of sanitary superintendents Nand Lal (south zone), Rajendra Prasad (south zone), Raj Pal Singh (SP zone), Om Prakash (Najafgarh zone), Ravinder Rai (west zone) and Naresh Kumar (central zone). An amount of Rs 5,000 will be deducted from their monthly salary. __._,_.___ messages in archives can be accessed only by members, but all are welcome to join hum janenge group. visit http://indiarti.blogspot.com to know everything on rti. .  __,_._,___
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