State info panel reprimands Sirsa varsity don for impractical order

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 22

The State Information Commission has passed strictures against the first appellate authority (FFA) of Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, for asking the state public information officer (SPIO) to provide photocopies of postal stamps attached to a letter already dispatched by him. It has said the FFA passed the order in the case without applying his mind.

In his order on an appeal, State Information Commissioner Yoginder Paul Gupta has observed, “The Commission is unable to understand what the FAA wants to say. One does not require exceptional intelligence to understand that no SPIO can provide photocopies of the postal stamps affixed on an envelope, which has already been posted”.

Om Parkash Wadhwa, a Rohtak resident, had sought some information from the university, which SPIO Ashok Makkar supplied to him in time. However, not satisfied, Wadhwa had moved an appeal before FAA Prof Sultan Singh, who issued the controversial order.

During the second appeal before the State Information Commission, Makkar informed it that while he had supplied complete information, it was not possible for him to provide photocopies of the postal stamps pasted on an envelop he had already posted.

Gupta observed that “since an FAA is a senior officer, he is supposed to be well-conversant with the working of the public authority. He is in a position to understand if an SPIO is making excuses to deny information to an information-seeker or there are genuine problems before him in dispensing with the information sought”.

In the present case, the FAA has passed the order in a mechanical manner without applying his mind. The applicant demanded photocopies of the postal stamps used for sending a letter and the FFA passed an order directing the SPIO to clarify whether the photocopies of postal stamps may be provided to the appellant or not and, if not, then justify the same.

The order said that the FAA should have told the applicant, who claims to have qualified an RTI online diploma course, to desist from making such impractical demands under the RTI Act, which has been framed to provide a tool to a common citizen to easily access information that may be locked in the corridors of power.

Being a citizen-friendly Act, it is also the duty of the citizens to ensure that the Act is not misused by anyone to settle personal scores. “No citizen should misuse the RTI Act that is an effective tool in the hands of common people in a democracy. Otherwise, the Act may become a centre of scorn. The FAA is warned to be more careful while discharging his duties,” Gupta has observed in his order.