[HumJanenge] Shall the Orissa Information Commission mend its administrative lapses?

                       Shall the Orissa Information Commission mend its administrative lapses?

Dear friends,

On 23.12.2008, I had filed an RTI Application to the PIO, I and PR Dept., Govt. of Orissa seeking some information about any arrangement/ procedure, if put in place by Govt. for citizens  to access information proactively disclosed  under  Section 4 of RTI  Act. Being dissatisfied  with the decision of PIO  and subsequently that of 1st Appellate  Authority,  I made a 2nd appeal  to  Orissa Information Commission in the month of March 2009.

Around fourteen months after that, the case was heard by Mr. Jagadanand Mohanty, State Information Commissioner on 1.5.2010 last. Then the case was again  heard and finally disposed on 29.6.10 by him. In his decision the Commissioner directed the nodal Officer-cum- Secretary, Information and Public Relations Department, Govt. of Orissa  to issue  guidelines for inspection  of the information proactively disclosed under Section 4 of  the RTI Act.   

Being absent in the final hearing, I could not know the date of disposal of the said case and the direction issued by the Commission.  Strangely enough, after a long lapse of 9 months, I got the copy of the above decision of the Commission dispatched on 23.3.2011. Had it  been  sent  just after the disposal of the cases, it could have been of  much benefit  to me along with whole lot of information seekers who are still fighting to access the information disclosed suo motu  by the State public authorities all across the State under Section 4 (1b)  of the RTI Act.

Secondly, this is however not a  single, isolated instance of the administrative lapse shown by Orissa Information Commission, but one of lot many where the decisions made by the Commission reach to the complainants after a long lapse of several months. Needless to say, because of such negligence by the office of the Commission, a  larger number of complainants are left in the lurch as to the status of their cases in the office of the Commission.

Thirdly,  such complainants, being in dark about the fate of their complaints at the level of the Commission, were naturally deprived of the opportunity to avail the route of grievance redressal by other appropriate authorities (such as Complaint before Governor under Section 17 of Act), especially in situations where Orissa Information Commission failed to do justice to them.

It won't be out of place here to observe here that the lapses of the above kind have been particularly observed in cases which have been disposed by Mr.Jagadanand State Information Commissioner. It is due such a lapse that a few months back, on 11.12.2010 last, Mr. Prahallad Padhi from Patnagarh, Bolangir  had  lodged  a complaint  under Section 17 against Mr. Jagadanand State Information Commissioner before the Governor, Orissa  saying that though his case (SA No- 15/2009) had been disposed of by Mr. Jagadanand Mohanty on 6.7.2010, the copy of his decision  didn't reach him even after six months.

Next, on 11.12. 2010 last, Mr. Sushant Kumar Sa from Bolangir has also submitted a similar complaint to Governor, Orissa  against Mr. Jagadanand Mohanty alleging that though his case was disposed of by SIC Mr. Jagadanand Mohanty on  6.7.10 , he didn't receive the copy of the decision even after six months.


During our meeting with Mr. Tarun Kanti Mishra, the Chief Orissa Information Commissioner of Orissa on 18.12.2010, I   had appraised him about the problem of long delay in intimating the complainants on the  decisions made by the Commission. He had assured us to take remedial steps in this regard. But as the present case shows up, the administration of the Commission suffers from the same malaise as it used to during his predecessor's regime.

Pradip Pradhan
Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan
M-99378-43482
Date-2.4.2011