Central Information Commission
Vinay vs Ministry Of Railways on 27 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
D K Biswas
DDPG & APIO (Coord)
RTI Cell, Room NO. - 507,
5th Floor, Railway Board, New Delhi - 110001. ...Respondent
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
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 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.
1
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 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 2 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.
Be 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.
3The 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.
With 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 4 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.
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.
54. 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, 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.6
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.
[Amitava Bhattacharyya] Information Commissioner Authenticated true copy (A.K. Talapatra) Deputy Registrar 7