NCPRI chief differs with CCIC on regulations

Wanted to share my email on this subject:

Dear Wajahat,

It was a pleasure talking to you as always, and I have gone through the regulations, and would readily concede that there are some very good parts, where things that were implied have been spelt out clearly.

From the Citizen's perspective, I am giving below my personal view of what I find as problematic. However, I will again reiterate that my fundamental premise that any changes in RTI should be made after giving sufficient time for discussion and subsequent education of Citizens. I shall also consult my colleagues about their views on these regulations and inform you as soon as possible. I would once again request you to make the provisions applying to appellants to be considered as guidelines, instead of rules, for the present.

My comments are given:

6. The Commission may have Summer vacation of 2 to 4 weeks during June-July and a winter vacation of two weeks during December-January, as notified by the Chief Information Commission. The office of the Commission will, however, remain open
during vacation except on gazetted holidays. The Chief Information Commissioner
may make appropriate arrangements to deal with matters of urgent nature during
vacations.

Comment: A clearly retrograde step unless a commitment is made about no
pendency.

8 ii) name and address of the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) or the
Central Assistant Public Information Officer (CAPIO) against whom a complaint is
made under Section 18 of the Act, and the name and address of the First Appellate Authority before whom the first appeal was preferred under Section 19(1) of the Act.

Comment: If no reply was received from PIO and AA, how will the appellant know
the names? Even when orders are issued, quite often the name is not given and only designations are given. Citizens have been filing RTI applications with just the designation and address, without names.

9(i) The RTI application submitted before the CPIO along with documentary proof
as regards payment of fee under the RTI Act;

Comment: A lot of Citizens are presently not keeping any copies of the payment;
Eg. If a payment is made by IPO or DD, they have no photocopy and are only
stating this in the Application. Even where the fee is paid in cash, most do not
preserve the receipt once a reply is received from a PIO. However, if this
considered necessary, it should be declared that this would be enforced after a
year.

9 (vi) A certificate stating that the matters under appeal or complaint have not
been previously filed, or are pending, with any court or tribunal or with any
other authority;

Comment: I feel this is illegal. Sub-judice matters are not exempt under RTI. Hence asking such a declaration creates an exemption which does not exist in the law.

9 (viii) A list of dates briefly indicating in chronological order the progress of the matter up to the date of filing the appeal or complaint to be placed at the top of all the documents filed.

Comment: This has not been a requirement so far. For all Citizens to know that
this is a requirement will take atleast a year. Until then it could be
recommended and an announcement made that it would be implemented a year later.

10. Service of copies of Appeal/Complaint
Before submitting an appeal or complaint to the Commission, the appellant or the
complainant shall cause a copy of the appeal or complaint, as the case may be,
to be served on the CPIO/PIO and the Appellate Authorities and shall submit a
proof of such service to the Commission. Provided that if a complainant does not
know the name, address and other particulars of the CPIO or of the First Appellate Authority and if he approaches the Commission under Section 18 of the Act, he shall cause a copy of his complaint petition to be served on the concerned Public Authority or the Head of the Office and proof of such service shall be annexed along with the complaint petition.

Comment: The Commision’s job should not pushed onto the Citizens. This would
impose a burden on Citizens, and will pose problems.

a) Citizens who go personally to these places, might have to travel long distances and may also be subjected to pressures, harassments etc., apart from losing their daily wage.

b) Appellants who use the postal system, will have to send everything by Registered AD or Speedpost, and get into further hassles of trying to improve the postal system. (eg. I send all my communications by Speedpost AD. And receive only about 20% acknowledgements).

The financial burden of doing this is likely to be upwards of Rs. 100/ even for a BPL Citizen.

Apart from this it will further delay the lodging of the appeal, since the appellant must first get proof of receipt of the Appeal.

17. Adjournment of Hearing:-

The appellant or the complainant or any of the respondents may, for just and sufficient reasons, make an application for adjournment of the hearing. The Commission may consider the said application and pass such orders as it deems fit.

Comment: It would be preferable not to allow any adjournments. Most of the papers and arguments are already with the Commission, and a decision should be pronounced based on the material before the Commission. If an appellant has traveled from a long distance, and the hearing is adjourned for any reason, it could be a very big burden on him. Similarly if the PIO is present, an adjournment would mean an unnecessary burden on the Government. It would be better not to exercise discretion in this matter, and insist on on no adjournments. Once these are allowed, it is a self-propogating virus. Endless
meaningless orders have been passed sanctimoniously saying adjournments show be
rare, but in reality they are the rule.

(ii) Every decision/order of the Commission may either be pronounced in one of the sittings of the Commission, or may be placed on its web site, or may be communicated to the parties under authentication by the Registrar or any other officer authorized by the Commission in this regard.

Comment: The decision must be sent to the parties, since a large number of Citizens and Public servants presently do not have web access.

Love
shailesh
shaileshgan@gmail.com