[HumJanenge] RTI misuse: NGO to cough up 75K

RTI misuse: NGO to cough up 75K Abhinav Garg TNN New Delhi: Harassment through misuse of RTI Act can cost you dearly. An NGO that used to hound MCD officials by swarming them with offensive RTI querieshaslearntthisthehard way.The Supreme Court has asked Paardarshita Public Welfare tocoughup a fineofRs 75,000 and pay ittotheBlindRelief Association,dismissing its plea to set aside a Delhi high court order. A division bench comprising Justice D K Jain and JusticeA nilKD ave rejectedthe argument put forward by the NGO and its general secretary Harkishan DasNirjhawan that the HC needlessly penalized them for seeking information under the transparency act. Nirjhawan had earned the courts wrath for demanding answers under RTI on sexual health and parentage of some of MCDs officials.HC was not amused when in November last year,the MCD informed it that Nirjhawan,who had then filed a PIL on alleged corruption in the organization of Commonwealth Games,constantly terrified them by threatening to expose them by filing such RTIs. The PIL sought an inquiry intotheinvolvementof certain MCD engineers in the Commonwealth Games scam.It alleged corruption on the part of the engineering department of the MCD,saying the engineers siphoned off public funds. HC dismissed the PIL and imposed a punitive fine on the NGO for RTI misuse.However,an unrepentant Nirjhawan chosetochallengetheHCorder before the apex court.Sources in the MCD claim despite the strong HC penalty,he still moves around in various offices of the civic agency carrying secret electronic gadgets to terrorize the officials. Withtheostensible purpose of nailing the corrupt,the NGO resortstobullying andintimidation,threatening MCD staff withcourtcases and more RTIs,agency officials said. Now,with even the apex court throwing out Nirjhawans appeal,many hope the NGO will mend its ways.In one of his RTIs that left the HC shocked,Nirjhawan asked the MCD to tell if some of its officials in the south zone area suffered from sexually-transmitteddiseases,if any of them had a surrogate or stepmother and their details and asked for a DNA report of an engineer in MCD to ascertain his parentage.RTI is a great act,it is people like you who give it a bad name, the bench had then observed,surprised to see how an NGO purportedly dedicated to eliminating corruption could adoptsuchlowtacticsfor a private agenda. abhinav.garg@timesgroup.com