The Central Information Commission (CIC) has warned government officials against denying information to an Right to Information (RTI) applicant on the ground that the fee has been wrongly deposited in the name of an officer or has been forwarded through a particular mode.
Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said the officials could not make these excuses in dealing with RTI applications.
“We would only like to place it on record that no Indian Postal Order (IPO) deposited as application fee should be returned only on the ground that it is not endorsed in the name of any particular officer or person,” the transparency panel said.
It also pointed out that the IPO, bankers’ cheque and demand draft were the three acceptable modes of depositing the RTI fees under the rules.
Mishra said rules made by the Government in this regard are very clear: The information seeker has the freedom to deposit the application fee in any of the prescribed ways and as long as he has deposited the fee in one of those ways, his application cannot be returned.
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