Re: [HumJanenge] DoPT Notifies new RTI appeal rules

This file is moving because of SC case no. Civil Appeal 2023/2012
which is listed for final disposal in July 2012.

On 8/9/12, C K Jam <rtiwanted@yahoo.com> wrote:
> http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/New-RTI-appeal-rules-notified/Article1-910489.aspx
>
>
> New RTI appeal rules notified
>
>
> Aloke Tikku, Hindustan Times
> New Delhi, August 08, 2012
>
>
> The government has notified a new set of rules for moving the Central
> Information Commission (CIC) against government departments, laying down the
> basic standards that the appeal will have to meet to be taken up. The new
> rules were notified by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) at
> the request of the CIC that was grappling with incoherent and incomplete
> appeals.
> Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said the commission had not
> insisted on a format or content of an appeal in the initial phase since the
> implementation of the law was still in its infancy.
> "But now that the number of RTI appeals has gone up, it has become extremely
> difficult for us to cope with incomplete, and sometimes illegible appeals,"
> Mishra told Hindustan Times.
> In the past, the CIC has accepted letters written to the commission as
> formal appeals and got around to putting together the necessary paperwork at
> its own initiative.
> With nearly a million RTI applications filed annually, the proportion of
> appeals has also increased considerably. As the CIC, Mishra has about 1,233
> pending appeals to deal with.
> As a result of the backlog, a denial of information appeal would have to
> wait for about 8 to 12 months before the information commissioner can take
> up the case.
> The new rules – notified on 31 July but yet not put in public domain by DoPT
> – not only lists the documents that would need to accompany an appeal but
> also lays down a format for the applications.
> Deviation from the format would not be a ground for rejecting an appeal to
> ensure that the poor were not discriminated against.
>
> But for the rest, "I think it is only fair to expect people to cooperate
> with us".