The Madhya Pradesh State Information Commission (MPSIC) on Thursday said that an RTI petition cannot be dismissed only on the basis of third party’s objection on the matter.
The commission was hearing a petition filed by a person against whom the RTI petition had sought information sharing. Information Commissioner Rahul Singh dismissed the objection of any third party and asked the appeal to be dismissed and directed the concerned department to provide the information immediately to the RTI applicant. Singh also served a fine of Rs 25,000 to Public Information Officer (PIO) Bhawna Sharma, stating the acts of obstructing information for unreasonable reasons.
In the RTI petition filed in the Commercial Tax Department, Satna, information has been sought from the employee of the department, Gajendra Kumar Mishra, about his posting, attendance and appointment order. The PIO had sought Mishra’s opinion on the plea and later, calling it a piece of personal information, suggested denying the information, to which the PIO agreed and proceeded with further action.
The applicant filed the first appeal and the appellate authority ordered the PIO to inform, reversing the earlier order. However, Mishra moved the Information Commission in Bhopal in the second appeal on 6 December and Information Commissioner Rahul Singh stayed the order of the first appeal and heard the matter on 8 December.
Singh clarified in the hearing that Section 11 only allows PIOs to take objections from third parties on RTI petitions and Section 8 only empowers them to refuse information.
Stating that the PIO did not take legal action in the matter, the IC said that the details of posting, appointment and attendance are public record and do not fall under the domain of personal information under Section 2 of the Act.
The commissioner clarified that mere objections from third parties are not sufficient for denial of information as any information which cannot be denied to Parliament or Vidhan Sabha cannot be denied to an RTI applicant. The Commission, in its detailed order issued on December 15, also underlined that it is aware of the situation where government employees are not available in the offices and common people are fed up of visiting the offices. This is the reason why the availability of attendance records under RTI will bring transparency in public offices apart from bringing necessary administrative disturbances.
“Otherwise the public offices will be replaced by those who can earn a salary without actually coming to the offices,” Singh said in the matter.
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