Central Information Commission
D. Raviteja vs Indian Institute Of Information ... on 13 January, 2025
के ीय सूचना आयोग
Central Information Commission
बाबा गं गनाथ माग,मुिनरका
Baba Gangnath Marg, Munirka
नई िद ी, New Delhi - 110067
ि तीय अपील सं ा / Second Appeal No. CIC/IIITD/A/2023/639317
D. Raviteja ... अपीलकता/Appellant
VERSUS
बनाम
CPIO: Indian Institute of
Information Technology, Design
& Manufacturing, Kurnool ... ितवादीगण/Respondent
Relevant dates emerging from the appeal:
RTI : 28.06.2023 FA : 08.07.2023 SA : Nil
CPIO : 05.07.2023 FAO : 07.08.2023 Hearing : 04.12.2024
Date of Decision: 10.01.2025
CORAM:
Hon'ble Commissioner
_ANANDI RAMALINGAM
ORDER
1. The Appellant filed an RTI application dated 28.06.2023 seeking information on the following points:
(i) "I request you to provide the reimbursement of my medical bill file movement details to date.
(ii) Provide the date of crediting the medical bill amount to my bank account.
(iii) Request to provide the decision taken on my leave encashment on ELs and HPLs at IIITDM Kurnool
(iv) Provide the file movement details of my leave encashment.
(v) Provide the date of crediting the leave encashment to my bank account.Page 1 of 7
(vi) For the RTI no. MEADP/R/E/22/00041 Dated 31.10.22, request to provide the institute norms on the antecedents verification."
2. The CPIO replied vide letter dated 05.07.2023 and the same is reproduced as under :-
"Regarding medical reimbursement of Shri D Raviteja, a communication had already forwarded to the individual vide letter number IIITDMK/Reg. office dated 30.06.2023.
Regarding Leave encashment, the matter will be placed before the statutory boards of IIITDM Kurnool and accordingly cash equivalent to leave will be processed.
The verification antecedents are being done."
3. Dissatisfied with the response received from the CPIO, the Appellant filed a First Appeal dated 08.07.2023. The FAA vide order dated 07.08.2023 stated as under:
a) Regarding medical bill reimbursement a communication had already sent to Shri Raviteja vide letter no. IIITDMK/Reg. office dt 30.6.2023 (copy enclosed). Decision for medical reimbursement will be taken based on the above report
b) Regarding medical bill file movement, Information cannot be disclosed under RTI 8(1)(e) & (h) of RTI Act
c) Regarding decision on your leave encashment, the matter will be placed before the statutory boards of IIITDM Kurnool and accordingly cash equivalent to leave will be processed.
d) Regarding providing the institute norms on antecedent verification, IIITDM Kurnool is following the norms set by the Government of India
4. Aggrieved with the FAA's order, the Appellant approached the Commission with the instant Second Appeal dated Nil.
5. The Appellant was present during the hearing through video conference and on behalf of the Respondent, Surya Praveen, AR & CPIO attended the hearing through video conference.
Page 2 of 76. The Appellant urged and insisted that the medical reimbursement is not being paid by the Respondent and no information is being provided regarding the file movement
7. The Respondent relied on the contents of their detailed written submissions filed prior to the hearing stating as under:
"Shri Raviteja was an ex-employee of IIITDM Kurnool from 11.06.2020 to 16.06.2022. IIITDM Kurnool is a newly established autonomous body. At that time, office procedures like file noting and File movements process were not there as there was no Registrar and institute was functioning with minimum office staff and faculty and the same was also aware of by Mr.Raviteja. Whenever any fresh receipt comes, it will be directly taken to the Director and based on his comments/directions, the correspondence and process used to be made. IIITDM Kurnool maintained only box files (without office notings) individually at that time. After Mr.Raviteja's moved out from IIITDM Kurnool, all the correspondence regarding his medical bill was made known to him and are as follows.
i) Shri Raviteja submitted a request letter on 12.12.2022 regarding processing of medical bills of his dependent father (actually his father is rich as per discreet enquiry).
This office had sought on 30.12.2022 some information from him for processing of medical bills.
ii) In reply to IIITDM Kurnool letter dated 30.12.2022, Shri D Raviteja submitted his clarification on 18.1.2023.
iii) Based on the reply by Shri D Raviteja, this office had sought some more information for processing the medical bill on 25.1.2023. In reply to the IIITDM Kurnool letter dated 25.1.2023, shri D Raviteja submitted his response on 7.3.2023 and also letter dtd 19.5.2023.
iv) During discrete enquiry for verifying dependency of his father, it was found that Shri Raviteja's father is a rich man in his village and his family is running M/s Sai Teja enterprise and it had tenders in their hands worth of Rs.80 lakhs. Whereas, Sh.Raviteja is claiming that his father is having only 70,000/- income per annum.
Page 3 of 7Competent authority of IIIITDM Kurnool has doubted the Income certificate of his father produced by him to claim of Rs 2.21 lakh medical bill on dependency. To verify the genuinity of the certificate, IIITDM Kurnool wrote a letter to the Nandyal District Collector, dated 10.05.2023 for investigation of Income Certificate issued to his father. The matter of referring to the State Government was communicated to Shri D Raviteja on 30.06.2023 too. This office again wrote reminders to the district administration for submission of information for processing of medical bills.
The above shows that there is no deliberate denial of giving the details of file movement and in view of pendency of investigation, Appellant Authority has conveyed to the applicant that "Regarding medical bill file movement, Information cannot be disclosed under RTI 8(1) (e) & (h) of RTI Act" owing to pending investigation.
In view of the above, there is no deliberate deni In view of the above, there is no deliberate denial of file movement details of his medical reimbursement (all process details were known to Sh.Raviteja) as there was no file noting till 30.6.23 and no file movement process and competent authority took shelter under RTI 8(1) (e) & (h) of RTI Act", hence the CIC is requested that the submissions may be accepted.
The written brief for Second issue is as follows.
In 2nd appeal vide CIC File No.CIC/IIITD/A/2023/639317: IIITDM Kurnool is deliberately denied the file movement details of my leave Encashment.
Respondent submission on 2nd Appeal dated 19-11-2024: IIITDM Kurnool is deliberately denied the file movement details of my leave encashment.
Respondent submits that the appellant used the word "deliberate" which is not correct due to the following.
1. Shri Raviteja is an ex-employee of IIITDM Kurnool from 11.06.2020 to 16.06.2022. IIITDM Kurnool is a newly established autonomous body. At that time, office procedures like file notings and file movement process were not there as there was no Registrar and institute was functioning with minimum office staff and faculty and the Page 4 of 7 same was also aware of by Mr.Raviteja. Whenever any fresh receipt comes, it will be taken directly to the Director and based on his comments, the correspondence/process will be made. IIITDM Kurnool maintained only box files (without office notings) individually at that time. After Mr.Raviteja's moved out from IIITDM Kurnool, all the correspondence regarding his leave encashment was made known to Mr. Raviteja and are as follows.
i) Shri D Raviteja present employer NIT Warangal had forwarded a letter regarding transfer of cash equivalent unutilized portion of leave vide letter dated 4.11.2022.
ii) Institute has written a letter to NIT Warangal dtd 02.02.2023 informing progress of audit.
iii) Institute has written a letter to NIT Warangal dtd 30.03.2023 forwarding the service book and attested copies and sought rule position for EL encashment and this copy was marked to Shri Raviteja also. To this letter, Shri Raviteja also replied vide letter dtd 19.05.2023 to IIITDM Kurnool regarding his probation.
iv) There was one more communication dtd 26.06.2023 from Shri Raviteja about the EL encashment.
v) On 14.08.2023, again IIITDM Kurnool wrote a letter to Mr Raviteja saying that leave encashment will be decided after FC and BoG decision.
vi) As per the existing policies the admissibility of cash equivalent unutilized portion of leave for Shri D Raviteja, matter was placed before the statutory boards of IIITDM Kurnool. Upon the final decision of the BoG, IIITDM Kurnool, cash equivalent of unutilized portion of leave was paid to Shri D Raviteja on 21.6.24.
From above communication it is clear that this office had regular communication with Shri D Raviteja regarding his cash equivalent unutilized portion of leave status. And as indicated above, only box file was there and after joining of regular Registrar, file noting was started on 30.6.23 for the decision regarding the cash equivalent, the file was Page 5 of 7 moved to competent authority for placing before the statutory bodies. While replying to Shri Raviteja regarding the submission of file movement details, we missed not informing the non-availability of the file movement process in the office (which Mr Raviteja was aware as an ex-employee that there exists only box file) which may be pardoned. Apart from these Shri D Raviteja kept on placing numerous RTIs to this institute. As of now this individual had placed 13 RTI queries to this office, which were repeated in nature, which affected the valuable time of manpower of this institute. Further, Shri Raviteja used to send number of abusive mails to the Board of Governors including the top-level Government Officers, an example is appended below.
xxx Hence, in view of the above, keeping this abusive language, IIITDM Kurnool had served a Legal notice on 26.5.2023 to Shri D Raviteja for using abusive language to the Board members. There was no repent from him. Hence, with the approval of BoG, a defamation case was filed against Shri D Raviteja in court of Honorable Senior Civil Judge Kurnool OS No.79/2023 dated 19.9.2023. The case is under progress.
Final submission: Even though, IIITDM Kurnool is a new institute with minimal staff, Institute informed the individual about the progress of Leave encashment and Medical bill reimbursement at every stage. Till recently, there was no file movement concept and Administration used to directly report to the Director for decisions. Also, Shri Raviteja was an unsuccessful candidate in the AR Recruitment so he started questioning awarding of marks to the selected candidates. All the 13 RTIs (since July 2022 to till date) of Shri Raviteja were replied and most of them were repetitive. In view of the above submission, CIC is requested to initiate suitable action on the applicant and our submission may be accepted. The direction of CIC will be implemented."
8. The Commission after adverting to the facts and circumstances of the case, hearing both parties and perusal of records, observes that the justification tendered by the CPIO for denying the information under Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act is found to be in order as per Section 19(5) of the RTI Act and leaves for no scope of intervention in the matter.
Page 6 of 79. The Appeal is dismissed accordingly.
Copy of the decision be provided free of cost to the parties.
Sd/-
(Anandi Ramalingam) (आनंदी रामिलंगम) Information Commissioner (सूचना आयु ) िदनांक/Date: 10.01.2025 Authenticated true copy Bijendra Kumar (िबज कुमार) Dy. Registrar (उप पंजीयक) 011-26180514 Addresses of the parties:
1. The CPIO Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design & Manufacturing, CPIO, RTI Cell, Jagannathagattu Hill, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh-518007
2. D. Raviteja6 Page 7 of 7 Recomendation(s) to PA under section 25(5) of the RTI Act, 2005:-
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