SRINAGAR: Chief Information Commission (CIC) has issued a notice to then Public Information Officer (PIO) in the office of Inspector General of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) wing of police for failing to provide information under RTI about detenues.
Head of an NGO, International Forum for Justice Muhammad Ahsan Untoo had filed an RTI application, seeking information about under- trials, detainees and persons booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) in the state.
After Deputy Inspector General of Police Prisons and CID wing of J&K police denied the information, Untoo knocked the door of CIC.
State CIC G R Sufi served notice to the then PIO to show cause as to why penalty proceedings should not be initiated against him for failing to pass order over an RTI application seeking information about detentions and under-trial prisoners.
While invoking different judgments passed by the Apex Court from time to time, the CIC said the Right to Information is a fundamental right and added that the information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or the state legislature shall not be denied to any person.
While disposing off a complaint, the CIC directed the then PIO of the CID to explain why penalty under section 17 of the State RTI Act, 2009 may not be imposed upon him.
Period of penalty will be reckoned from the date when the order was to be passed till the date when the order is actually passed.
The CIC said that reply in any form from PIO must reach to this Commission within 30 days from the receipt of this order.
He also directed the present PIO of IGP CID to serve a copy of this order on his predecessor. The CIC while directing the PIO to pass the fresh order, quashed the earlier order passed on behalf of the IGP CID because this was passed by an authority who has no jurisdiction to do the same.
Under the State RTI Act, 2009 only PIO can pass an order on who is to be designated as PIO by the Public Authority under Section (5) of State RTI Act, 2009. The CIC ruled that on above grounds the order passed on March 6, 2012 is hereby quashed because it was passed by an authority who has no jurisdiction to do the same. Agencies
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