Designate nodal officer to handle RTI applications: HC to MoF

Finance Ministry should appoint a nodal officer to distribute RTI applications to the concerned central public information officer for processing, the Delhi High Court has directed while upholding the order of Central Information Commission in this regard.

The Finance Ministry has five departments-- Economic Affairs, Revenue, Expenditure, Financial Services and Disinvestment.

Each one of them have different sets of Central Public Information Officers for processing RTI applications but there is none to process queries which are directed to the Ministry.

The Finance Ministry had challenged before the Delhi High Court an order of Central Information Commission which directed it to designate at least one officer to whom RTI applications related to Ministry can be addressed.

"In case a CPIO is appointed for the Ministry of Finance, the implementation of the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005 and processing of all RTI applications of all departments of the Ministry of Finance would become difficult and extremely time consuming which will result in prejudice to the citizens of the country as well," Finance Ministry had pleaded before the High Court.

Setting aside Ministry's plea, Justice Rajiv Shakdher in a recent order directed it to publicise name of a Nodal officer who will received RTI application and process them to ascertain as to the department to which it pertains.

"On completion of this exercise, the application received by the Nodal officer will be marked to the CPIO of the concerned department.

"In case the information pertains to more than one department, photocopies of the information would be supplied to CPIOs of all such departments so that there is no delay in reciept of information by the querist," he said.

Justice Shakdher said the Nodal officer on receipt of the information and processing the same will immediately write to the querist, indicating to him, the CPIO of the concerned department to whom his application is marked.

"The return communication of the Nodal Officer shall set out the name, address and telephone number of the said CPIO to facilitate exchange to furture communication between the two, if found necessary," he directed.

Justice Shakdher said the order of the CIC is supplanted with the directions issued by him.

"Needless to say, if any application is preferred by a querist, which does not indicate the name of the concerned CPIO, these will be entertained in the first instance by the Nodal officer and thereafter dealt with in accordance with the directions issued hereinabove," he ordered.

The case relates to RTI application filed by Subhash Agrawal seeking information related to use of currency notes to felicitate the then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati in 2010. Agrawal had addressed his application to the CPIO of the Finance Ministry.

The Ministry returned the application claiming that they do not have any such officer for the Ministry following which Agrawal approached CIC seeking redressal of his complaint.

Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra ordered, "We have something called a Ministry of Finance with a Finance Secretary in position. Therefore it is rather odd that the Ministry does not itself have a CPIO.

"Even if it is admitted that the Ministry operates through various departments under it, the Ministry itself is in existence as a public authority and, therefore, it needs to have a CPIO."