Re: [rti4empowerment] First Appeal before FAA - DoPT

On the issue, please read the following important decision of former CCIC, Mr. Wajahat Habibullah

 

RTI- CIC- IMPORTANT DECISIONS - Process RTI requests within 30 days: CIC
 
Process RTI requests within 30 days: CIC

In a precedent-setting decision, the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Wajahat Habibullah ruled that facts sought under the Right to Information Act (RTI) would have to be processed and made available within 30 days of receiving the request and not 30 days after the applicant has paid the fee for the information sought.

 

Delivering the ruling in December, the CIC held the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCL) is liable to pay compensation to Dr BJ Waghdhare, a resident of Madban in Jaitapur region at Ratnagiri district whose land is among the 980 hectares of property in the region that is sought to be acquired by the government for setting up of two nuclear power plants and a residential colony for its personnel by the NCPL.

Waghdhare had appealed to the CIC that the information sought by him on December 31, 2005 from NCPIL was provided as last as on February 23, 2006. Located in New Delhi, the CIC conducted the hearing through a videoconference. It held that: "NCPL argued that the application was received at a time when the processing of such RTI Act-regulated information was at its infancy in the corporation. Besides, the fees were paid only on January 25, 2006. Therefore the supply of information by February 23, 2006 was not within the stipulated time. This claim that the time limit begins to apply only from the date of receipt of fees is without basis in law."

 

The CIC added that under the RTI Act provisions, it was incumbent upon NCPL to expeditiously provide the information within 30 days of the receipt of the request on the payment of such fee as may be prescribed. "It is therefore clear that whereas the information may be provided only once the fee is received, it is not up to the public information officer to begin the process of the application for information from the date the fee is received."

 

The CIC also held NCPL liable for inconvenience that Waghdare suffered as it failed to transfer the request for information sought by him (though unavailable with NCPL) to the appropriate authority. As a result this NPCL's non-compliance, the appropriate authority did not provide the information sought by him.

 

The CIC has also directed NCPL to provide some more information sought by Waghdhare related to the power projects. Residents of Jaitapur region like Wagdhare are opposing the power plant projects.

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From: Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com>
To: rti4empowerment@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sat, 26 March, 2011 8:46:14 AM
Subject: Re: [rti4empowerment] First Appeal before FAA - DoPT

Dear Mr Umapathi

What you are saying is not a new view, it has been previously discussed threadbare on the RTI_India forum with valuable inputs from our esteemed members like Ashish Kumar (who wrote the book - now in its 12th ?? edition and 935 pages - on how PIOs can evade giving information to silly little RTI activists whose heads are filled with nonsense).

In short

A) A CPIO (as defined in 5(1)) is not supposed to accept RTIs / fees from the applicants. That is the job of the CAPIO (defined in 5(2)) who acts as a postman.

B) The job of the CPIO is to "deal with" information requests and assist the applicants. The CPIO can only deal with (3rd party notice/fee computation/denial in 30 days for 7-1 etc.)  the RTI request after he "receives" it. The time for transmission of a RTI request to the "dealing" CPIO is limited to 5 days in the ACT.

Hence there is no basis in law - RTI Act - for you to say that 30 days begins when RTI application is received by PA, the Man of OffProc notwithstanding. <----- note this carefully.

Sarbajit

On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 8:16 PM, umapathy subramanyam <umapathi.s.rti@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear sir, Technically, Mr. Roy is wrong to say that the PIO's clock ticks only from the date of receipt of application physically by PIO. Section 6(1) of RTI Act says that the application to be submitted to PIO of concerned public Authority. so, when the application  reaches the Public Authority , not the PIO , the countdown of  30 days begins. Moreover,  Same section also stipulates that the application can be submitted through electronic means. so, the best way is to send the application to PIO by e-mail  followed by hard copy by speed or registered post.

Regards.

umapathi.s

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 8:25 AM, Manoj Pai <manojpai@yahoo.com> wrote:

So one would have to do a Prof Ansari against them. Use their own manual against the CPIO, which clearly states that all letters / communications should be diarised on the same day of its receipt in the office. Later, it should be sent to the concerned officer on the same or next working day. Which means, the application should be delivered to the concerned CPIO latest by the next working day. If what you say is true, the onus would then be on the CPIO, that he was not in his chamber for the next 15 days. Of course, he will conceal the fact that all officers have to maintain a Movement Register. So it is all open to us, to seek inspection of not only the diary register, but the Movement register of the CPIO as well. Manoj PS: It was Prof. Ansari who used the DoP&T Manual of Officer Procedure, against them in the full bench CIC Decision, in the matter of Pyarelal concerning file notings. --- On Tue, 3/22/11, Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com> wrote: From: Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [rti4empowerment] First Appeal before FAA - DoPT To: rti4empowerment@googlegroups.com Date: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 7:04 AM The DoPT PIO's clock starts ticking only when the RTI request reaches him physically. So although it may have been received by the DoPT's dak section on date 1, it usually takes about 15 days extra to reach the PIO's desk