Rs 25,000 penalty imposed on Madhya Pradesh revenue official for avoiding response to RTI query

The Madhya Pradesh Information Commission has imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 against an Under Secretary of the state government’s Revenue Department for alleged malafide and willful intention of not sharing the information sought by an RTI applicant related to a corruption case.

While hearing an appeal filed by RTI applicant Achal Kumar Dubey, Information Commissioner Rahul Singh in a recent order slammed the officer concerned for adopting dilatory tactics to avoid responding to the desired information.

Dubey, had in 2017, filed an RTI application with the urban development and housing department, seeking a copy of charge sheet issued to the then chief municipal officer (CMO) Vidisha, on the basis of a complaint of alleged irregularities filed by him. He had also sought a copy of the response given by the accused officer on the departmental charge-sheet issued to him.

Aggrieved over the lack of response to both his application and first appeal from the department, Dubey moved the transparency watchdog.

During the hearing, the Under Secretary and Public Information Officer (PIO) pleaded not guilty saying that he had made all efforts to access the file, but he could not as the file was with another department.

The PIO, however, failed to provide any documentary proof in support of his claim.

Information Commissioner Rahul Singh said the PIO faulted on many counts as he did not transfer the RTI application to other departments whom he thought was having the information for providing the response.

Besides this, he also remained incommunicado despite being approached by Dubey several times.

Singh, in his order, listed documents which prove that the PIO was in fact part of the investigation done against the then CMO and he had details sought by the applicant but chose to withhold the information.

The information commissioner also said that jurisprudence should be used while addressing such RTI applications.

The applicant has every right to know the status of its complaint as the department had found merit to launch an investigation on the basis of his complaint, according to the Commission's order issued last week.

Singh also imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on the Under Secretary of the Revenue Department, who was then with the urban development and housing department, the order added.