Don't reject RTI applications on flimsy grounds: CIC

The civic body has refused to accept an RTI application addressed to its Central Public Information Officer saying there was no such post in its office.

"A citizen has no means or the necessity of understanding as to which Public Information Officer within MCD or any other department is to be addressed. "It is for the department to ensure that any communication received in the capacity of an RTI application shall be accepted and further forwarded to the concerned Public Information Officer," Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi ordered the civic body while hearing the plea of activist S C Agrawal.

Gandhi said the Right to Information provides that a public authority may appoint a Assistant Public Information Officer who may be assigned the duty to forward the RTI application to the respective PIO.

"Municipal Corporation of Delhi should ensure in future that RTI applications are not returned on such flimsy grounds. You are hereby directed to make such arrangements wherein the RTI applications are received and subsequently forwarded to concerned Public Information Officer," Gandhi directed.