R. K. Sharma vs Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited ... on 9 September, 2021

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Central Information Commission

R. K. Sharma vs Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited ... on 9 September, 2021

Bench: Neeraj Kumar Gupta

                               के   ीय सूचना आयोग
                         Central Information Commission
                           बाबा गंगनाथ माग,मुिनरका
                         Baba Gangnath Marg, Munirka
                         नई द ली, New Delhi - 110067

ि तीय अपील सं या/Second Appeal No. CIC/ONGCL/A/2020/103632

Mr. R.K. Sharma                                        ... अपीलकता/Appellant
                                  VERSUS
                                    बनाम
CPIO                                                   ... ितवादी /Respondent
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation
Limited, PDDU Urja Bhawan,
Tower-A, 2nd Floor, Plot No. 5-A &
5B, Nelson Mandela Marg, Vasant
Kunj, New Delhi-110070

Relevant dates emerging from the appeal:-

RTI : 19-07-2019            FA    : 02-10-2019          SA       : 21-01-2020

CPIO : 05-09-2019           FAO : 17-10-2019            Hearing : 07-09-2021

                                 ORDER

1. The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. The appellant seeking information including inter-area is as under:-

1(A) "Photocopy of ONGC's decision/minutes of official meeting decided ONGC Everest Expedition 2017 and approved the budget. (B) A/c head wise negotiated decided amount form ONGC Expedition budget to pay to IMF for handling organizing the expedition. (C) A/c head wise total expenditures of the expedition done by ONGC, etc."

2. As the CPIO had not provided the requested information. Aggrieved by the CPIO order the appellant filed the first appeal dated 02-10-2019 requesting that the information should be provided to him. The first appellate authority upheld CPIO's reply vide FAO dated 17-10-2019 and disposed the appeal. He filed a second appeal u/Section 19(3) of the RTI Act before the Commission on Page 1 of 3 the ground that information has not been provided to him and requested the Commission to direct the respondent to provide complete and correct information.

Hearing:

3. The appellant did not attend the hearing despite being served the hearing notice. The respondent, Shri Shekhar Dutta Shukla, CPIO/Ass. Commissioner attended the hearing through audio-call.

4. The appellant submitted his written submissions dated 23.08.2021 and the same has been taken on record.

5. The respondent submitted that vide their letter dated 05.09.2019, they have provided the relevant information to the appellant as per available records. He further submitted that the appellant in his second appeal has raised an issue regarding the reply provided w.r.t the point no. 1 (E) & 2 (E) of the RTI Application as well as for providing unattested/unsigned typed copy to him. He further submitted that the information sought in above mentioned points are related to the internal functioning of IMF and such information is not held by their office. He also submitted that as far as the issue for not providing unsigned/unattested copy of the relevant documents are concerned, the signed copy of the relevant documents as per their records will be provided to the appellant.

Decision:

6. The Commission, after hearing the submissions of both the parties and after perusal of records, observes that the appellant has raised number of queries w.r.t the successful ONGC Everest Expedition 2017, Kanchenjunga Expedition 2018 organized by IMF and documents from it. The Commission further observes that the appellant is aggrieved with the reply provided w.r.t the information sought at point no. 1 (E) & 2 (E) of the RTI Application relates to the internal functioning of IMF which is an internal contractual agreement between ONGC & IMF. Since, it's a third party private entity and their internal expenditure details are not shared with the public authority, therefore the Commission cannot expect from the CPIO to provide such details to the appellant. The Commission also observes that disclosure of such information would adversely affect their commercial interest and not required to be disclosed to the public authority as per their contractual arrangement. The Commission observes that the appellant has raised an issue of providing him the unattested/unsigned copy of the documents with respect to the rest of the queries as sought in the instant RTI Application which needs to be addressed.

Page 2 of 3

7. In view of the above, the Commission deems it fit, to direct the respondent that certified copy as per the records of the public authority and as much as permissible under the provisions of the RTI Act as agreed by the respondent should be provided to the appellant within 15 days from the date of receipt of this order.

8. With the above observations, the appeal is disposed of.

9. Copy of the decision be provided free of cost to the parties.



                                                          नीरज कु मार गु ा)
                                      Neeraj Kumar Gupta (नीरज           ा
                                                              सूचना आयु )
                                    Information Commissioner (सू

                                                       दनांक / Date : 07-09-2021
Authenticated true copy
(अिभ मािणत स यािपत  ित)

S. C. Sharma (एस. सी. शमा),
Dy. Registrar (उप-पंजीयक),
(011-26105682)


Addresses of the parties:


1.    CPIO
      Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited,
      PDDU Urja Bhawan, Tower-A, 2nd Floor,
      Plot No. 5-A & 5B, Nelson Mandela Marg,
      Vasant Kunj, New Delhi-110070

2.    Mr. R. K. Sharma




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