excuses like "shortage of staff", "extra work" cannot be accepted as
grounds for declining information under RTI Act.
While pronouncing the order, Justice Augustine George Masih observed,
"If such excuses are accepted, the RTI Act would become redundant and
ineffective, and would frustrate the objective for which it has been
enacted. Such internal administrative reasons cannot be treated as a
defense for not supplying information."
The ruling has come in the wake of a writ petition filed against an
order passed by the state information commission (SIC), Punjab, on
June 14, 2010. SIC had imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 against the
state public information officer of Ludhiana Improvement Trust, Lal
Singh Tiwana, for a delay of more than five months in supplying
information to RTI applicant Gurwinderjeet Singh from Ludhiana.
Justice Masih rejected all reasons put forth by Tiwana and concurred
with those given by SIC for imposing a penalty on the information
officer for delay in information to the complainant.
In his petition filed against the SIC orders, Tiwana had stated that
Ludhiana Improvement Trust was functioning with only 40% of sanctioned
staff strength and there was a heavy rush of public for registration
of plots on the basis of original price under a scheme which was
expiring. He had argued that additional work of census was being done
by the staff, which resulted into delay in supplying information to
the complainant.
Justice Masih, however, accepted the petitioner's contention, that
although the RTI application was received in January 2010, the
petitioner-information officer had joined the trust on transfer on May
11, 2010, and therefore, was not responsible for the delay on the part
of his predecessor. Accordingly, Justice Masih held that the
petitioner-information officer has to be imposed a penalty at the rate
of Rs 250 per day for a period of 75 days, amounting to Rs 18,750.
