Central Information Commission
Vinay vs Ministry Of Railways on 29 November, 2018
क यसूचनाआयोग
CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION
बाबा गंगानाथ माग
Baba Gangnath Marg,
मु नरका, नई द ल -110067
Munirka, New Delhi-110067
File No.: CIC/BJ/A/2016/900266
In the matter of:
Vinay Bajpai
...Appellant
VS
Shri Ashok Kumar
Joint Director (E) Reservation
Ministry of Railway, Room
No. 164, Railway Board, New Delhi - 110001.
&
DDPG/APIO(Coord),
RTI Cell,
Room No. 507, 5th Floor,
Railway Board, New Delhi - 110001.
&
Shri Naval Kishore Sharma,
DD/PPP (Infra),
Ministry of Railway,
Room No. 156/19, Railway
Board, New Delhi - 110001.
...Respondents
Dates
RTI application : 26.04.2016
CPIO reply : Not on Record
First Appeal : 05.06.2016
FAA Order : Not on Record
Second Appeal : 02.08.2016
Date of hearing : 14.12.2017, 26.02.2018, 23.10.2018`
26.11.2018
Facts:
The appellant vide RTI application dated 26.04.2016 sought information on five points relating to the theft of soil and pebbles on railway tracks; date of 1 receipt of the complaint in this regard from the appellant and others in the Ministry of Railways, name and designation of the officer who placed the matter before the railway minister, copy of the order of the minister, details of the First Appellate Authority and other related information. The CPIO's reply or the First Appellate Authority (FAA)'s order is not on record. Aggrieved with the non-supply of the desired information, the appellant filed second appeal u/s 19 of the RTI Act before the Central Information Commission on 02.08.2016.
Grounds for Second Appeal The CPIO did not provide the desired information.
Interim Order
Appellant : Absent
Respondent : Shri D.K. Biswas,
Deputy Director (PG) cum APIO (Coordination),
RTI nodal cell, Railway Board,
During the hearing, the respondent APIO submitted that they needed some more time because the relevant information has to be collated from different wings/branches of the railways.
In the interest of justice, the case is adjourned.
The registry of this bench is directed to fix another date of hearing.
Final Order : 26.02.2018
Appellant : Absent
Respondent : Shri S.K. Panda,
Deputy General Manager cum PIO,
DFCCIL
During the hearing, the respondent PIO Shri S.K. Panda submitted that the entire matter was pending in the railway board only because it was a complaint against the working of the contractor appointed by the DFCCIL and the DFCCIL had nothing to do with the processing of the complaint sent to the railway minister. He submitted a letter dated 02.01.2018 in this regard which was sent to the APIO, Shri D.K. Biswas (RTI Co-ordination), Railway Board in 2 which Shri Panda had categorically stated that the information on the complaint was sought from the Railway Ministry . Hence, the DFCCIL was not privy to any action taken by the railway board on the complaint made to the then railway minister.
In the previous hearing before the Commission dated 14.12.2017, the APIO, Shri Biswas submitted that they needed some more time because the relevant information has to be collated from various branches of the railways. However, during the hearing on 26.02.2018 instead of collating the information, the present DD(PG), Shri Biswas was noted by the Commission to pass on the responsibility of defending this case to the shoulder of the DFCCIL which by any stretch of reasoning was not part of any action taken on the complaint submitted to the then railway minister by the complainant concerned. This shows utmost negligence on the part of the then DD(PG), RB which is deplorable for which a show cause notice needs to be issued to him.
In view of the above, a Show Cause notice is issued to Shri D.K. Biswas, Deputy Director (PG) cum APIO (Coordination), RTI nodal cell, Railway Board, u/s 20 of the RTI Act to explain the following:-
(i) Why he was not present on the day of hearing i.e. on 26.02.2018; and
(ii)Why no reply was provided to the appellant in almost two years from the date of receipt of the said RTI application by the DD(PG), RTI nodal cell, railway board.
The explanation to the above stated Show Cause notice is to be submitted to the Commission by the respondent APIO within 15 days of the receipt of this order. On receipt of the explanation to the said Show Cause Notice, further action as deemed appropriate will be taken.
The respondent APIO should note that in the event of non-submission of the explanation within the time stipulated above, the Commission has the liberty to take the required decision ex-parte against the respondent APIO.
3Be that as it may, it is clear that entire information should have been provided by the concerned wing of the railway board and because of the negligence of the above mentioned APIO, the case has been delayed.
Be that as it may, since no desired information was provided to the appellant in the present case, the respondent Shri D.K. Biswas, Deputy Director (PG) cum APIO (Coordination), RTI nodal cell, Railway Board is directed to provide point wise reply complete in all respects to the appellant as available on record in the form of certified true copies of the documents sought e.g. note sheet, letter, correspondence, e-mail etc.(legible copies), free of charge u/s 7(6) of the RTI Act within 15 days of the receipt of the order. For this purpose, the concerned APIO, can take assistance of any other office/department u/s 5(4) of the RTI Act.
The respondent APIO is further directed to send a report containing the copy of the revised reply and the date of despatch of the same to the RTI appellant within 07 days thereafter to the Commission for record.
A copy of this order is also endorsed to the Chairman, railway board with an advisory issued u/s 25(5) of the RTI Act to look into this matter of needless transfers by the RTI nodal cell to different wings in the railway board or outside which cause unnecessary delay in the provisioning of the information to the information seeker. It is to be noted by the CRB that in a number of cases earlier, this Commission had advised him to look into the manpower problem existing at the RTI nodal cell in the railway board for quite some time but the Commission notes with regret that no action is forthcoming in this regard. The Commission hopes that this time the matter will be viewed with seriousness it deserves and that urgent intervention of the Chairman, Railway Board will serve to mitigate the pressing manpower problem existing at the RTI nodal cell, RB existing for some time. The Commission will appreciate an action taken report on this within a period of two months from the receipt of this advisory issued u/s 25(5) of the RTI Act, by the office of the CRB.
4With the above direction and advisory issued to the CRB, the appeal is disposed of.
Copies of the order be sent to the concerned parties free of cost.
Adjunct Order : 23.10.2018
Respondent : Shri D.K. Biswas, Deputy Director
(PG) cum APIO (Coordination)
A Show Cause notice was issued to Shri D.K. Biswas, Deputy Director (PG) cum APIO (Coordination), RTI nodal cell, Railway Board, u/s 20 of the RTI Act to explain the following:-
Why he was not present on the day of hearing i.e. on 26.02.2018; and Why no reply was provided to the appellant in almost two years from the date of receipt of the said RTI application by the DD(PG), RTI nodal cell, railway board.
Explanation from Sh D K Biswas, DDPG & APIO (Coord.) RTI Cell:-
Why he was not present on the day of hearing i.e. on 26.02.2018 He submitted that due to stomach pain, he could not attend the aforesaid hearing. He had also tried to speak/contact with the Dy. Registrar, CIC but failed to contact him. However, he tendered his apology for not attending the said hearing.
Why no reply was provided to the appellant in almost two years from the date of receipt of the said RTI application by the DD(PG), RTI nodal cell, railway board.
1. Sh. Vinay, the applicant in the RTI application dated 26.01.2016, mentioned about some alleged malpractices by anonymous contractor in regard to same under construction rail projects and in this regard a reference was made by the DCTM, Kanpur Central to the Railway Minister highlighting the alledged malpractices. Based on the action taken on the said representation/complaint, he sought information on 05 points about its processing and disposal.5
2. The applicant did not mention any date, letter no. in the RTI application addressed Railway Minister about details about the DCTM, Kanpur Central.
The said representation hence could not be traced out due to non divulgence of the said representation.
3. The office of the Railway Minister and various other concerned dates, branches including Head Qtr office of DFCCIL were consulted but to no avail. It was ascertained from their offices that no reference from DCTM, Kanpur Central had either been received or dealt with by them.
4. In order to trace out the said representation , various Dtes/Branches were consulted and at last the case was traced out and marked to the CPIO & DS/Parliament on 02.08.2016. The said RTI application remained unresponded due to his sickness and recent implantation of three stents in his heart. The case had later on been marked to the Infra Dte because the subject matter was not related to the Parliament Branch and it was related to the Infra division of the Railway Board.
5. It is clear that sincere efforts were made in order to make available the requisite information to the applicant even if there was serious shortcoming in the said RTI application and the queries were of general in nature. The case got delayed to due to circumstances as explained above.
Decision:
Based on the above submission and on perusal of record, it was noted by the Commission that the said RTI was pending with the then DS Parliament, Ashok Kumar since 02.08.2016. On 12.12.2017 it was forwarded to the Infra Dte, Naval Kishore Sharma, DD/PPP (Infra). Hence, the delay in providing a response to the above stated RTI application lies on then DS Parliament, Shri Ashok Kumar presently posted as Joint Director (Establishment SC/ST) & Shri Naval Kishore Sharma, DD Infra (PPP).
The Commission is constrained to adjourn the case and show cause notices are issued to then DS Parliament, Shri Ashok Kumar presently posted as Joint Director (Establishment SC/ST) & Shri Naval Kishore Sharma, 6 DD/PPP(Infra) u/s 20 of the RTI Act to explain why no reply was provided to the appellant in these years from the date of receipt of the said RTI application.
The explanations to the above stated Show Cause notices are to be submitted to the Commission by the respondent PIO's within 05 days of the receipt of this order. On receipt of the explanations to the said Show Cause Notices, further action as deemed appropriate will be taken.
The respondent PIO's should note that in the event of non-submission of the explanations within the time stipulated above, the Commission has the liberty to take the required decision ex-parte against the respondent APIO.
It was also noted by the Commission that till now no reply has been provided to the appellant by the respondent authority. The Commission directs Shri D.K Biswas to thoroughly search records and provide point wise reply complete in all respects to the appellant as available on record to the appellant within 15 days from the receipt of this order.
OR In case no such records are available even after thorough search the present respondent CPIO, is directed to submit an affidavit to the Commission within one week of the receipt of this order with a copy duly endorsed to the appellant within the same time period.
The registry of this bench is directed to refix the hearing and to ensure that the then DS Parliament, Shri Ashok Kumar presently posted as Joint Director (Establishment SC/ST) & Shri Naval Kishore Sharma, DD/PPP(Infra) are present invariably before the Commission .
Copies of the order be sent to both the parties free of cost.
Adjunct Order : 26.11.2018
Respondent : Shri Ashok Kumar
DS Parliament, Railway Board
Shri Naval Kishore Sharma
DD/PPP(Infra)
7
Shri Ashok Kumar submitted that throughout the period there were tremendous pressures of parliamentary works as he was the supervisor of the Railway Board's Parliament Branch during the period in question. Besides attending to starred and unstarred parliamentary questions, he also had to attend the briefing meetings held by the Hon'ble Minister of Railways and also by the Minister of State for Railways relating to parliamentary questions, Bills etc. He further submitted that he was also holding charge of chasing Branch, which deals with most of the VVIP and VIP references received by the Minister for Railways and also the State Railway Ministers.
He stated that he is a chronic diabetic patient and also have a problem of high BP. The heavy workload of parliamentary work etc. took its toll on his health which finally resulted in his having a severe heart attack in March, 2017. For quite some time, he remained hispitalised as 3 stents were implanted in his heart. Thereafter, even though he was feeling quite weak, he had to resume his duties. The medical treatment is still continuing for the heart problem and also for diabetis and BP. During the course of the said treatment, he had lost hearing capacity in the right ear, which has not still not been cured properly.
He summed up his statement by submitting that generally in matters of delay, the concerned branch chases the matters with concerned officers, reminding them in writing to expedite disposal thereof in case any matter has been lost sight of. In the instant case, no such reminder was received due to which the matter unfortunately remained out of sight. Furthermore, it may be observed that the subject matter of the RTI application did not pertain to either the Parliament Branch or the Chasing Branch which worked under his supervision during the abovestated period. The delay was neither deliberate nor was it committed with any malafide intention. It happened due to the aforesaid circumstances which were beyond his control.
Shri Nawal Kishore Sharma, Dy. Dir-II/Infra, Railway Board submitted before the Commission that he was on leave from 29.11.2017 to 25.12.2017 due 8 to illness of his father, who finally succumbed to the illness on 11.12.2018. He joined the office on 26.12.2018 on expiry of sanctioned leave.
He further submitted that as the matter did not pertain to him, the same RTI application was transferred to the concerned CPIO on 27.12.2018 itself, i.e. on the very next day of his return from leave.
He submitted that necessary action as per the provisions of the RTI Act had been taken by him. The delay in taking action was on account of reasons which were beyond his control. However, if any delay was still caused on his part, the same may be condoned. He requested the Commission to withdraw the show cause notice issued to him.
Decision:
The Commission did not find the explanation of Shri Ashok Kumar entirely tenable especially w.r.t the delay committed by him w.e.f 02.08.2016 to 12.12.2017, i.e. prior to his hospitalisation. Shri N.K Sharma had however provided justified reason for the delay. The Commission, although sympathetic to his medical condition, can not absolve Shri Ashok Kumar totally from the charge of delay in transferring the said RTI application atleast for the period till March, 2017. It is relevant to mention here that transferring an RTI application u/s 6(3) of the RTI Act is not a difficult task and that Sh. Ashok Kumar is trying to escape the responsibility for the delay by harping on his medical condition, howsoever genuine it might be. Therefore, the Commission is constrained to impose token penalty on Shri Ashok Kumar for causing delay in transferring the said RTI application.
The Commission imposes token penalty of Rs. 1,000/- on Shri Ashok Kumar for causing delay of 16 months in transferring the said RTI application. Accordingly, he is directed to pay a sum of Rs 1,000/- by the first week of January 2019. The Director (E), Reservation, Railway Board is directed to recover the amount of Rs 1,000/- from the salary payable to Shri Ashok Kumar and remit the same by way of demand draft drawn in favour of 'PAO CAT' New Delhi. The penalty should reach the Commission by the first week of 9 January, 2019. The Demand Draft is to be sent to the Deputy Registrar (CR-II), e-mail;[email protected] Room no. 106, First Floor, Central Information Commission, Baba Gangnath Marg, Munirka, New Delhi-110067.
The registry of this bench is directed to send a copy of this order to the Director ( E ) Reservation, Railway Board for compliance of this order.
The Director ( E ) Reservation, Railway Board is directed to take action as per the above direction and submit an action taken report within 15 days from the receipt of this order.
A copy of this order is to be sent to the Chairman, Railway Board, for information and appropriate action.
The Action history submitted by Shri Ashok Kumar shows that the RTI application was transferred by Shri N.K Sharma on 27.12.2017 to Shri P.R Parhi, Dir.T Plg. till 30.05.2018, it was pending with Shri Parhi. He transferred it only on 30.05.2018 to Shri Jetendra Singh, Deputy Director. Shri Jetendra Singh promptly i.e on the same day forwarded it to Shri Ajeet Singh, Deputy Director (Infra). Shri Ajeet Singh transferred the same to Shri Dharmendra Kumar on 06.06.2018. Till 01.11.2018 it was pending with Shri Dharmendra Kumar, DPG, RTI Cell.
Both Shri Parhi and Shri Dharmendra Kumar are responsible for delay of 5 months each for the delay.
The above history also shows that the RTI application was returned again to the RTI cell led by Shri Dharmendra Kumar, DPG.
A strict warning is issued to each of them i.e. to Sh. P.R Parhi, the then Director, Plg, railway board and Sh. Dharmendra Kumar, the then Director(PG), nodal RTI Cell, railway board for causing delay in transferring the said RTI application. The Commission considers it a fit case to recommend to the Chairman, Railway Board strict action against the abovestated officers for adopting such lackadaisical approach in disposing of the said RTI application.
A strict warning is also issued to Shri D.K Biswas, the then Deputy Director (PG) for submitting incomplete action history of the present RTI 10 application due to which delay on the part of Shri P.R Parhi and Shri Dharmendra Garg was not known to the Commission during the earlier hearing. He should be careful in future while submitting facts before the Commission.
An advisory is issued u/s 25(5) of the RTI Act to the Chairman, Railway Board to issue a suitable circular to all officers dealing with matters relative to the RTI Act for complying with the provisions of the Act within the stipulated periods of time and to the best of their abilities.
With the above direction, the showcause proceeding is treated as closed. Copies of the order are to be sent to all the concerned parties free of cost.
अिमताभ भ टाचाय)
Amitava Bhattacharyya (अिमताभ टाचाय
Information Commissioner ( सूचना आयु )
Authenticated true copy
(अिभ मा णत स या पत ित)
Ajay Kumar Talapatra (अजय कुमार तलाप!)
Dy. Registrar (उप-पंजीयक)
011- 26182594 / [email protected]
दनांक / Date
Copy to:
1. Chairman, Railway Board, Rail Bhavan, New Delhi- 110001
2. The Director ( E ) Reservation, Railway Board, Rail Bhavan, New Delhi- 110001.
3. Deputy Registrar (CR-II), e-mail;[email protected] Room no. 106, First Floor, Central Information Commission, Baba Gangnath Marg, Munirka, New Delhi-110067 11