SOCIAL AUDIT - Action taken details under RTI

Date: 22-09-2014                                                                                     By email

To,

Chief Information Commissioner,

Central Information Commission,

August Kranti Bhawan, Bhikaji Cama Place,

New Delhi110066

Email: dc.singh@nic.in

Respected Sir,

Subject: Decisions No. CIC/BS/C/2013/000126/SH DATED 02-07-2014 AND CIC/VS/A/2013/001368/SH DATED 08-07-2014

As part of social audit and citizen participation in governance, I happened to peruse captioned decisions.

2. In decision dated 02-07-2014 supra, Ld IC has ordered disclosure of  gist of the findings of the respondents in regard to the complaint filed by appellant and the number and rank of officials, if any, against whom action is contemplated / underway on the basis of the enquiry conducted on his complaint.

3. Unfortunately vide his decision dated 08-07-2014, same Ld IC has upheld denial quoting judgement dated 03-10-2012 of Hon’ble Supreme Court in the matter of SLP (Civil) No. 27734 of 2012 - Girish R. Deshpande v/s CIC, which has also been quoted in his above decision dated 02-07-2014.

4. While decision dated 02-07-2014 upholds letter, preamble, legislative intent and spirit of RTI Act, decision dated 08-07-2014 completely veils details of action taken by the public authority on complaint of appellant. It would have been in the interest of transparency and good governance, if gist of action taken and list containing designations would have been ordered to be supplied to the appellant. This would have met ends of RTI Act. This is more so when big ticket scams are surfacing not only in banks but in every sphere of govt functioning.

5. Decision dated 08-07-2014 supports secrecy and encourages mismanagement within public authority by not exposing public servants for their misdeeds. It is common practice in govt that majority public servants support other public servants in wrong doings and take action only when forced by judiciary. Hence citizens have right to know details of findings and action taken by public authority against officers against whom complaints have been made. Citizens may not be interested in names of officers, but definitely their official designations and details of action taken should be revealed under RTI Act to the complainant at least. This information will not affect personal privacy of public servants as their names are not being revealed. If complainants are not made known gist, designations of officers and findings of enquiry if any made on their complaints, then whistle-blowing will be rendered defunct. This in turn will encourage corruption, bad governance, frauds and non-accountability to citizens in a democratic country. It appears that said judgement has been over stretched in CIC decision dated 08-07-2014. Section 10 also could have been ordered for names of officers.

6. I humbly request you to kindly get decision dated 08-07-2014 reviewed by larger bench. It has larger public interest and principles of consistency and precedence are breached. Please refer judgement dated  01-06-2012 of Hon’ble High Court of  Delhi in W.P.(C) 11271/2009 –Registrar of Companies & ors v/s Dharmendra Kumar Garg & anr.

7. I am attaching copies of both the decisions for easy reference.

Yours faithfully,