Thursday, July 21, 2011

Re: [HumJanenge] Re: CIC loses on penalty strikes

Dear Sarabjit

I have never responded or participated in group discussions on this group, for some other reasons.

However, the language used by you in the trail mail is unworthy of the kind of discussions that are generally on the site.
There are better ways to express yourselves.

Regards
--
Rakesh Aima

On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 8:47 AM, M.K. Gupta <mkgupta100@yahoo.co.in> wrote:
Dear Sarab,
I am surprised to see your reaciton.  Why r u so agitated and leave the decision on the member to decide who is foolish etc. and working on behalf of some outsider.  I will not allege that u r an ISI agent but I m not a blind follower of AN Tiwari or any body else.  I use my mind which u call is full of "BHOOSA".  
regards
m k gupta

--- On Fri, 22/7/11, Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [HumJanenge] Re: CIC loses on penalty strikes
To: humjanenge@googlegroups.com
Date: Friday, 22 July, 2011, 6:20 AM

Dear foolish RTI "activists / sevadars / traitors" etc etc.

On this group we try to clear your heads of the straw (bhoosa) and shit (dung) it is filled with concerning RTI. Unfortunately you people while not allowing your heads to be cleaned, also insist on spreading your shit into everyone else's space and mucking up our lives too by your foolish actions like filing bakwaas Writ Petitions. Your actions lead us to suspect that you people are linked to the ISI funded NGOs which are bent on destroying Bharat Mata.

Before you idiots go off tilting at windmillls as you usually do, please read CIC's own decisions on its powers of review insofar as penalty is concerned. By way of example I cite a well researched order by Mr A.N.Tiwari at [http://rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/AT-16092009-06.pdf] a copy of which is attached to this post for ready reference.

Sarbajit

On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 4:28 PM, M.K. Gupta <mkgupta100@yahoo.co.in> wrote:
Filling WP is a bold step.

I will give some cases of mine wherein penalty proceedings were withdrawn without any tangible reason as the violation of Act has proved. These belongs to ICs Shri M L Sharma and Mrs. Annapurna Dixit.  Though I wanted to file WP and could not do so due to short of time, expenses, legal expertise and above all, could not find a willing advocate in our area willing to file WP on subsidised fee..

Please inform your phone number and city so that we can meet personally too.



--- On Thu, 21/7/11, Manu <moudgilmanu@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Manu <moudgilmanu@gmail.com>
Subject: [HumJanenge] Re: CIC loses on penalty strikes

To: "HumJanenge Forum People's Right to Information, RTI Act 2005" <HumJanenge@googlegroups.com>
Date: Thursday, 21 July, 2011, 10:29 AM


Thanks for the suggestions Mr Gupta, we are planning to file a writ
petition in the court against CIC's decisions.

On Jul 20, 8:37 pm, "M.K. Gupta" <mkgupta...@yahoo.co.in> wrote:
> Dear Manu,
>
> When the CPIO is not competent to interpret the provisons of the RTI Act, he should have asked the Commissioner (s) who has / have dropped or withdrawn the penality, as in these cases, Commissioners must first know the provisions of the Act before condoning / dropping or withdraing penalty. The CPIO also had the option to take legal opinion from the legal cell of CIC on the issue before replying the application which has not been exercised. 
>
> From the reply, it is evident that the CIC has indirectly admitted that there is no provision to condone / drop or withdraw the penality. The Act clearly states that the penalty shall be imposed in case of violation of the Act.
>
> You may file first/ second appeal on these lines as the CPIO has not given complete information and has put the onus on you to seek legal advice from a profession on an action taken by CIC. 
>
> If an applicant is aggrived, the CIC does not review its decision but from your mail, it appears that it reviews its decision if the CPIO or Public Authority is aggrived.  As per CIC own decision it cannot review its own order and the aggrived party should go to the Court.
>
> What is the use of recommending disciplinary action if follow-up is lacking and no action is taken against the CPIO for the flagrant violation of the RTI Act?
>
> Dear Manu, I congratule you for this bold step.  Keep it up and take the matter to the logical conclusion. U have raised a very crucial issue.
>
> On Wed, 20/7/11, Manu <moudgilm...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From: Manu <moudgilm...@gmail.com>
> Subject: [HumJanenge] CIC loses on penalty strikes
> To: "HumJanenge Forum People's Right to Information, RTI Act 2005" <HumJanenge@googlegroups.com>
> Date: Wednesday, 20 July, 2011, 11:16 AM
>
> The Central Information Commission has dropped penalty proceedings
> against errant officials while having no power to do so
>
> PICTURE THIS: Between March 2007 and October 2010, the Central
> Information Commission set aside, dropped or modified 12 of its own
> orders in which it had penalised several public officials for
> violating the RTI Act. Worse still, the CIC does not know under what
> provisions it reviewed its own decisions. According to documents
> available with GOI Monitor, the CIC showed leniency on errant
> officials belonging to prominent public authorities such as the
> National Crime Records Bureau, Indira Gandhi National Open University,
> Labour Commission, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Chandigarh
> Administration and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
>
> What is noteworthy, however, is that the CIC does not have any
> authority to review its own decisions. The power lies with the High
> Court. For instance, all this time when the CIC was reducing or
> quashing penalties, various high courts of the country were also busy
> reviewing several decisions of the CIC in which penalty amounts had
> been imposed on public officials.
>
> When asked through another RTI application to list the provisions
> under which penalty proceedings had been dropped or modified, the CIC
> replied: "You may take legal opinion in the matter. CPIO is not
> competent to interpret the provisions of the Act." The reply was
> undersigned by the deputy secretary and joint registrar, CIC.
>
> Though the waived off penalty amount of Rs 2.35 lakh may seem
> negligible, the action has far reaching consequences because the
> penalty provision is provided in the RTI Act to deter officials from
> hiding or providing false information. However, the leniency showered
> by information commissioners on the errant public officials is well
> known. According to a study done by the Public Cause Research
> Foundation, the rate of penalty imposition by information
> commissioners across India was barely 3 per cent in 2009-10 which
> resulted in a loss of Rs 86 crore to the state exchequer. The actual
> loss figures may be much higher because the study did not take into
> account seven more provisions to impose penalty other than delay in
> providing information.
>
> The fact that CIC has been acting lenient on the negligent public
> officials can be gauged from the 2009 case of P.C. Sekhar Vs. New
> India Assurance Company Limited. In its final decision, the CIC
> imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on the CPIO N K Singh for delay in
> transmission of information to the applicant. Singh asked the CIC to
> review its decision and an internal inquiry was marked by the CIC to
> be done by the CMD of New India Assurance Company Limited.
>
> The report submitted by the CMD supported the CPIO and instead blamed
> one of his subordinates, Shailendra Shukla, for "holding on to the
> information and also keeping his superiors entirely in the dark on the
> issue". Shukla, it was further claimed, had since quit the company and
> was not traceable. Notably, the same information was not provided to
> the CIC when it had first issued a show cause notice to the CPIO on
> why the penalty amount should not be imposed on him. However, the
> commission still took mercy on the CPIO and dropped the entire penalty
> proceedings.
>
> In another case Mehar Singh Vs Under Secretary (Home), UT Chandigarh,
> CIC imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on the CPIO for delay of 100 days
> in providing the information. The CPIO filed a review petition
> claiming that other officials in the UT Administration should be held
> responsible for the delay since the information requested pertained to
> their departments and they did not furnish it to her on time. CIC
> asked the concerned department heads to fix responsibility. Thereafter
> two other officials were additionally held responsible for the delay
> but the department heads claimed they were diligent in their work and
> hence should not be penalised. The CIC again took mercy and observed
> that since no single authority could be identified for the delay the
> penalty proceedings could be set aside.
>
> Besides the inadequacy shown in reviewing the penalties, CIC has also
> been negligent in following up the disciplinary action recommended
> against the officials who persistently fail to accept RTI application
> or provide information.
>
> There were total of 21 officials belonging to top ministries and
> departments including the Ministry of Home Affairs, Indian Air Force,
> Ministry of Agriculture and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) who had
> been recommended for disciplinary action by the CIC between October
> 2005 and December 2010.
>
> No records regarding the action taken by concerned departments on the
> recommendations of CIC are maintained. In fact, the departments are
> not even asked if any action had really been taken to punish those who
> violate the RTI Act.
>
> Such an attitude of the CIC would only help undermine the cause of
> transparency and accountability as envisaged under the RTI Act.
>
> Visitwww.goimonitor.comfor more info
> See the documents accessed through RTI by GOI Monitor here:https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B8HgtOxJw4dVOWQ0ZWZjNzAtYzRlZS00YWY0...




--
Rakesh Aima
Regional Director (South)
Pro-Interactive Services (India) Pvt Ltd
Mob: 09972833644
Email: rakesh.aima@prointeractive.in
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