Complaints of non-compliance of CIC decisions - suggestion

Date: 09-08-2013                                                      By email

To,

Chief Information Commissioner

Central Information Commission,

August Kranti Bhavan, Bhikaji Cama Place,

New Delhi - 110 066

Email: s.mishra@nic.in

Hon’ble Sir,

Subject: Complaints of non-compliance of CIC decisions - suggestion

It is witnessed that large number of PIOs and FAAs do not comply with orders of CIC and appellants are required to file complaints u/s 18 for getting decisions operationalised, after having gone through long process of getting decision from CIC and waiting for one to three years.

CIC does not give priority to such complaints of non-compliance and are queued with other complaints/appeals, which again entail delay of one to three years. Thus by the time some action is taken there is horrible delay of nearly 5-7 years from filing RTI application. Mostly ICs beg of PIO/FAA to comply with its orders and hardly any penalty is imposed or disciplinary action recommended. This leads to mockery of ICs and their orders.

I suggest that at least, CIC should decide to give such complaints of non-compliance priority and should be decided in maximum three months of its receipt. Such complaints are different from normal first-time complaints or appeals, since appellant has already gone through entire process of obtaining decision of IC. Such complaints deserve to be separately lined up.

Secondly, ICs must impose penalty and recommend disciplinary action in case of non-compliance. This will give some credibility and weightage to ICs’ orders.

I appreciate your very balanced, well reasoned decisions and some of them are landmarks in the history of RTI. I am sure you would consider my above suggestion positively in the interest of RTI.

Yours faithfully,

J P Shah