Odisha Soochana
Adhikar Abhijan
Adhikar Abhijan
Plot No. D-27, Maitree
Vihar, Post-Rail Vihar, Bhubaneswar
Vihar, Post-Rail Vihar, Bhubaneswar
—————————————————————————————————————–
Date: 15.04.2017
To
Gayatri Mishra
Joint Secretary (IR)
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & pension
Department of Personnel & training
North Block
New
Delhi
Delhi
Sub: Framing R.T.I rules 2017 in supersession of RTI Rules
2012 – Comments/suggestions regarding.
2012 – Comments/suggestions regarding.
Dear Madam,
As
per your circular dated 31st March 2017 regarding above
mentioned subject, a State consultation was organised
by Odisha Soohana Adhikar Abhijan (a
state–level forum of RTI Activists spearheading campaign for effective
implementation of RTI Act in Odisha) at Bhubaneswar on 10.4.17. to prepare
a note of suggestions to Central Govt.
for making the said draft Rules citizen-friendly,
inconsonance with letter and spirit of RTI Act.
Good number of intellectuals, advocates, retired bureaucrats, RTI
Activists, Civil Society Groups had participated in the deliberation and
presented their views. I am herewith
forwarding these comments / suggestions for your reference.
per your circular dated 31st March 2017 regarding above
mentioned subject, a State consultation was organised
by Odisha Soohana Adhikar Abhijan (a
state–level forum of RTI Activists spearheading campaign for effective
implementation of RTI Act in Odisha) at Bhubaneswar on 10.4.17. to prepare
a note of suggestions to Central Govt.
for making the said draft Rules citizen-friendly,
inconsonance with letter and spirit of RTI Act.
Good number of intellectuals, advocates, retired bureaucrats, RTI
Activists, Civil Society Groups had participated in the deliberation and
presented their views. I am herewith
forwarding these comments / suggestions for your reference.
|
Draft Central RTI Rules, 2017 |
|||
|
Rule
|
Existing
provision |
Suggestion
|
Justifications
|
|
Rule-4
|
Fees for
providing information
(C) actual
cost of price for samples of models
(d) Rupees
fifty per diskette or floppy
(g) so much
of postal charge involved in supply of information that exceeds fifty rupees |
(C) actual
cost of price for samples and /or models
(d) No fee
for sending information in email, pendrive, CD and any other electronics medium.
(g) to be
deleted |
Because, no
cost is involved to provide the information in electronic means.
As per
Notification No.34012/ 13(s)/2005-Estt(B) dtd 6-10-2005, “… Since a number of public authorities do not have offices located at each sub-divisional level or sub-district level, the matter was taken up with the Department of Posts to provide the services of their Central Assistant Public Information Officers (CAPIOs) to function in that capacity for all public authorities under the Central Government…..”; “The Department of Posts have also indicated that they will be in a position to undertake the work only on behalf of those Ministries who have completed this action and have informed them of the same. Ministries/ Departments are, therefore, requested to indicate the details of the Central Public Information Officers designated by them as well as the nodal officers/ central point in their Department to receive the RTI
mails
(application etc. forwarded by the CAPIOs) to the Department of Posts urgently.” |
|
Rule-6.
|
Mode of
Payment of fees |
Money
order, paytm to be accepted as mode of payment of fees. |
|
|
Rule-8
|
(1) (viii) A certificate
stating that the matter under appeal has not been previously filed and disposed or are pending with the commission or any court and |
To be deleted
|
As RTI Act
concerns only supply of information to the information-seekers, no such type of certificate is required and it should not be ground for rejection of appeal. Secondly, this provision has been borrowed from the impugned CIC (Management) Regulations 2007 [vide Regulation 9(6)]. The expression ‘any court’ is not only superfluous, but also counter-productive, since an RTI applicant may require a piece of information simply in connection with one of his cases pending in a court.
Moreover,
If the matter under the appeal was previously filed and disposed or are pending there will be a long time gap, obviously more than 90 days. For delay there is rule to request for condonation vide Rule 8(vii). So a certificate as required under Rule 8(viii) is not necessary. |
|
|
(ix) proof
of service of appeal to respondent |
To be
deleted |
It is
presumed that proof of service of appeal to respondent means the copy of appeal to be sent to CPIO, First Appellate Authority (FAA) prior to sending it to Commission. It will be extra financial burden on the poor appellant to send the copy of appeal to respondent. The present practice of issuing notice along with copy of appeal petition by the Commission to CPIO has been widely accepted and it has not created any problem for anybody in RTI regime. |
|
|
(2)
Before submitting an appeal to the Commission, the appellant shall cause a copy of the appeal to be served on the CPIO and shall submit a proof of such service to the commission |
To be
deleted |
DO
|
|
Rule-11
|
Procedure
for deciding appeals
(iii)
inquire through authorised officer further details or facts |
To be
deleted |
As required
under section 18 (3) of the RTI Act, the Commission is empowered itself to enquire into cases filed before commission. Provision for appointment of enquiry officer by Commission is violation of the RTI Act. As per the Delhi High Court judgement in WP (C) 12714/2009 dated 21.05.2010 in the matter of DDA versus CIC and another, the Commission can’t delegate the enquiry power to any other officer outside its authority. |
|
Rule-12
|
Withdrawal/abatement
of appeal
(1)
The Commission may in its discretion allow a prayer for withdrawal of an appeal if such prayer is made by the appellant
(2)
The proceedings pending before the commission shall abate on the death of the appellant |
To be
deleted |
Since 12
years of implementation of RTI Act, many RTI Activists have been murdered due to their fight to expose corruption through use of RTI. May of their cases are pending in the commission. If the case will be closed, the information relating to corruption or their problem may not come to public. Secondly, it will encourage the vested groups to kill information-Seekers on the pretext that information about their misdeeds will not be exposed.
CIC
RESOLUTION dated13-9-2011 reads, “2. This Commission, therefore, resolves that if it receives a complaint regarding assault or murder of an information seeker, it will examine the pending RTI applications of the victim and order the concerned department(s) to publish the requested information suo motu on their website as per the provisons of law.” Therefore abatement of pending proceedings on the death of the appellant is abatement of transparency. |
|
Rule-13
|
Complaint
to the Commission
(1)(V)
A certificate stating that the matter under appeal has not been previously filed and disposed or are pending with the commission or any court |
To be deleted
|
Not
required. The purpose of the law to find out information and to be acessable by the citizens. As per RTI Act, the cases relating to non-supply of information will be filed to Information Commission only. |
|
|
(vi) Proof
of service of complaint to respondent |
To be
deleted |
It is the
practice in the commission that the commission issues notice to respondent along copy of the complaint /appeal petition. It is borrowed from CIC (Management) Regulation 2007 vide Regulation 10 which has been quashed by Delhi High Court ( WP C No. 12714/2009 on 21.5.2010. |
|
|
(3)
Before submitting a complaint to the commission, the complainant shall cause a copy of the complaint to Central Public Information Officer ad shall submit a proof of such service to the commission |
To be deleted
|
DO
|
|
15
|
(iv) the Commission may in
its discretion allow a prayer for any amendment of a complaint during hearing , including conversion of the complaint into second appeal, if available remedies have been exhausted on a prayer made by the complainant. |
To be
deleted |
It will no
way help the complainant or appellant. As per section 18 of the RTI Act, the Commission is empowered to take any kind of step to uphold the law and ensure justice to the complainant. There is no need of conversion of the case into second appeal. |
|
16
|
(v) On receipt of a non-compliance
communication, the Commission shall determine whether compliance of the decision has been made. Where the Commission finds non-compliance of its decision, it may proceed action |
To be added
It may
proceed action against public authority, CPIO and any referred PIO under the Act. There should be provision for outlining detailed procedure with fixation of time limit for the Commission to initiate action against CPIO, FAA and Public Authority. |
|
|
17
|
Xxxxxxx directs that the appeal/complaint/non-compliance or a
category of the same may be posted for hearing/disposal by another bench or a bench of two or more information commissioners either at the request of an Information Commissioner or suo moto if the same involves an intricate question of law or larger public interest. |
To be
deleted |
As per
section 18 ( 3) of the Act, the Commission is required itself to cause an enquiry into any complaint cases without assigning anybody for enquiry. Constitution of Bench of CIC which has found place in CIC (Management) Regulation,2007 which has been quashed by Delhi High court ( WPC 12714/2009 dated 21.5.2010. |
|
18
|
Presence of parties before
the Commission
(3)The
Commission may allow the parties to be present in person or through authorised representative or through video / audio conferencing at the time of hearing by Commission |
The PIO/
public authority who has violated RTI Act should not be represented by anybody. He himself is to be present in the hearing to respond the query of the commission. |
As per
section 19 (5) of the RTI Act, any appeal proceeding, the onus to prove that a denial of a request was justified shall be on Central Public Information Officer who denied the request. Similarly, as per section 20(1) of the RTIAct, burden of proving that he acted reasonably or diligently shall be on the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer as the case may be. |
|
22
|
Language of the Commission
(1)
An appeal or complaint or non-compliance communication may be filed in English or in Hindi and all the documents or copies thereof shall also be filed in English or in Hindi |
It should
be in Hindi, English and other regional language |
As per
section 4(4) of the RTI Act, each public authority is required to disseminate all materials taking into consideration the cost effectiveness, local language and the most effective method of communication in the local area xxxxxxxxx. |
Thanking you
Yours sincerely
Pradip Pradhan
State Convener
M-9937843482
