RTI: CIC hits out at Delhi Police
MNK
for its inorderly RTI redressal mechanism, the Central Information
Commission (CIC) has asked the local administration to take steps
towards enabling information access to RTI applicants without any
harassment.
"It is important that the public authority (Delhi Police) sets its
house in complete order so that no information-seeker suffers any
harassment in filing his request for information, paying the fee,
receiving the information and so on," said Information Commissioner A
N Tiwari in a recent order.
The CIC was hearing an appeal-cum-complaint filed by one Rishi Chawla
wherein he complained that the system for receipt of fee, applications
and transmission of information as managed by the police was far from
being citizen-friendly.
Stressing that disclosure of information under RTI Act was of primary
importance, the Commission stated that an information-request should
not be turned down merely because it was not accompanied with the
requisite fee.
"The proper thing to do in such a situation could be to accept the
application, set in motion the process of information collection and
then intimate the appellant to present the proof of remitting the fee
by a given date...," it added.
The Commission, which was hearing over the complaints raised by Chawla
on issues of the police's failure to effectively disclose information
under the Act, further said that such complaints were not uncommon
against the local police administration.
"The appellant/complainant has brought up concerns which appeared to
be common to all information-seeker vis-à-vis the Delhi Police," it
said.
The Commission made adverse remarks over the frequent failure of the
Delhi Police's Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) in
communicating their contact details while replying to the information-
seekers.
"This (non-specification of the CPIO's name and contact details)
prevents the applicant from bringing to their notice any infirmity or
irregularity he may find in the information provided to him," said the
Commission.
Earlier, Chawla had filed an RTI application with the Delhi Police to
which a reply was provided to him.
Chawla, unsatisfied with the CPIO's reply, filed an appeal-cum-
complaint before the Commission stating his grievances against DP's
RTI redressal procedure.
The Commission, which blamed the police administration for its
prevailing lacuna in its RTI disclosure mechanism, has remitted the
case back to Joint Commissioner of Police (HQ) who is the concerned
Appellate Authority, to disclose the details sought, within four
weeks.
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