Guidelines for PIOs / First Appellate Authorities for supply of Information and disposal of first appeal respectively - reiteration of

To view please  Click Here

Introduction of postal stamps as RTI fee/cost - seeking comments from public regarding

To view DoPT circular No. 1/3/2014-IR dated 14th January 2014, please CLICK HERE. 

All members and track in viewers are requested to send their views / suggestions for use of definitive (ordinary) postal stamps as one of mode of payment for RTI application fee. Ordinary postal stamps are easily available to every citizen in any post office on face value only. 

The views / suggestions may kindly be send through email to Shri R. K. Girdhar, Under Secretary (RTI), North Block, New Delhi at usrti-dopt@nic.in latest by 7/2/2015. 

All Circle Secretaries will place this information on their Circle Association's blog.

Depts ignoring DoPT rules in RTI matters: notice issued

Even nine years after enactment of the Right to Information Act, officials have been found to be rejecting applications with fee drawn in favour of 'Accounts Officer' as mandated by the Central Government. 

Taking a stern view against the practice, the Central Information Commission recently issued a show-cause notice to the Delhi Government for rejecting an RTI application on the grounds it was drawn in favour of "Accounts Officer" and not in favour of "Executive Engineer" as per their internal rules. 

This is not the only case where application has been rejected. In a number of cases, public authorities like Army and Indian Air Force demand fee drawn as per their rules and do not follow the DoPT norms. 

The application sought details of MPLAD funds and their expenses during the last five years on flood control measures. It was returned by the Irrigation Department claiming that name of the payee was wrong on the fee submitted by the applicant. 

"The Commission directs Rajesh Singh, Executive Engineer: Civil Division:IV to show cause as to why penalty u/s 20 should not be imposed upon him for not accepting the IPO in the name of the Accounts Officer despite clear instructions from DoPT. 

"He is directed to submit his response so as to reach the Commission within three weeks of receipt of this order," Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said. 

If the officer fails to explain the reason for rejecting the application, the Commission may penalise him at the rate of Rs 250 per day from the day the application was filed subject to a maximum penalty of Rs 25,000. 

He also directed the PIO to ensure that while responding to the RTI application, the PIO should ensure that reference date is mentioned so that appellants do not find it difficult to link it to their RTI application. 

"Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has repeatedly reminded public authorities to accept all payments under RTI Act made in 'Accounts Officer'. But difficulties are being faced by RTI petitioners because of public authorities not complying with DoPT circulars," RTI applicant Subhash Agrawal said.

Source : http://www.business-standard.com/

Guidelines on RTI Internship for 2014

Guidelines on RTI Internship for 2014

F. No 14/9/2014-IR
Ministry of Personnel, PG and Pensions
Department of Personnel and Training

North Block, New Delhi-110001
Dated : 10th November,2014.

Office Memorandum

Subject: Guidelines on Internship for Undergraduates pursuing five year integrated course in Law or graduates pursuing Bachelor’s degree in Law under the Centrally sponsored Scheme on “Improving Transparency and Accountability in government through effective implementation of Right to Information Act”

1.0 Introduction

The Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT), Ministry of Personnel Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, is the nodal Ministry for the Right to Information Act. It is administering a Plan scheme titled ‘Improving Transparency and Accountability in Government through effective implementation of the Right to Information Act’. The primary goal of the scheme is to contribute towards more accountable and transparent government and it has several components including programmes for awareness generation, training and e-governance initiatives for RTI for achieving the purpose.

Department of Personnel and Training has been conducting Internship Programme for the Ministries and Departments in the Government of India, which is beneficial both to the Departments and the interns. This will help the Ministry/ Department consolidate and document its experience in the implementation of RTI, its successes, constraints in implementation, identify the areas which need more attention, address the gap areas and suggest what more needs to be done to help achieve the objectives of the Act. The interns would be familiarized with the process of seeking information and enabling access to information under the RTI regime.

Under the scheme, DOPT is offering short-term internships to Undergraduates who are in the second year pursuing five year integrated course in Law or graduates in the first year pursuing three year graduation course in Law from a recognised and reputed University to conduct an analysis of RTI Applications in select public authorities.

2.0 Areas of Study and Research Output
The RTI Internship is being offered to analyze a sample of the RTI applications received in the calendar year 2014 by select public authorities. The analysis of the applications would aim to get an overall picture of the applications received and do an in-depth study of the information sought and the response by the CPIO/ Public Authority. Templates of the expected outputs are enclosed. Template I covers the preliminary analysis of the Public Authority while Template II covers the detailed analysis of the selected RTI applications. The interns would also study the status of suo motu disclosure of the Ministry/Department allotted to them for their internship and would submit a report in this regard, as per the guidelines mentioned at Annexure I.
3.0 Guidelines/ Salient Features of the Internship Programme

Duration • The internships would be for duration of one month starting 1st December, 2014 onwards.
• The internship programme is neither a job nor any such assurance for a job in the Department of Personnel of Training or any other Ministry/ Department in Government,
Remuneration Travel costs of interns will be reimbursed on actual basis up to Rs.5000/- on submission of reports.
Logistic Support Interns will be provided with the necessary logistics support i.e, office space and photocopy facility.
Submission of Paper The Interns will be required to submit to the Department of Personnel and Training and the selected Ministry/ Department a report on the Areas of study as detailed above.
Placement The Interns will be placed in selected Ministries/ Departments
Certificate of internship Certificates will be issued on satisfactory completion of their internships and on submission of their Reports

4.0 Methodology

a) The Department of Personnel and Training will coordinate with the selected Public Authorities for the internship programme.
b) An initiation workshop will be held for the interns at the beginning of the internship. The work of the interns will be monitored through weekly interactions with the interns by the Department of Personnel and Training.
c) The interns will be allotted to selected Public Authorities. The interns will report to a nodal officer of the selected Public Authority. The interns will spend 2(two) weeks to study and analyze the RTI applications and one week to study the status of suo motu disclosure of the Ministry/Department concerned. The last week would be devoted to writing the report.
d) The interns will be required to study the applications received by atleast 5 CPIOs within the public authority which receive the maximum applications. They will be required to select randomly 20 applications( which are not older than 6 months) from each CPIO for study.
e) Copies of all RTI applications analysed will be submitted to DOPT alongwith the report. A soft copy of the templates and report on suo motu disclosure has to be submitted to the email id usir-dopt@nic.in by 28th February, 2015 Non submission of either will be treated as an incomplete report.

(Sandeep Jain)
Director (IR)
Tel No. 23092755
e-mail osdrti-dopt@nic.in

source-http://ccis.nic.in/WriteReadData/CircularPortal/D2/D02rti/14_9_2014-IR-10112014.pdf

COPY OF CHARGE-SHEET CANNOT BE DENIED UNDER RTI ACT: CIC

The CIC Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu held on 3rd November 2014 that ‘charge-sheet’ has to be disclosed after separating non-disclosable portions, if any, as per restrictions prescribed under RTI Act. Ms. Usha Kanth Asiwal sought to know from Director of Vigilance Delhi, details of complaint made to Anti Corruption Bureau on 25-04-2001 and  inquiry leading to registration of case against 13 persons under Prevention of Corruption Act, which is now under prosecution in Tis Hazari Courts. She sought 22 point information, which broadly relate to contents of the Charge-sheet.

The PIO denied the information u/s 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act claiming disclosure would impede investigation or prosecution.  The First Appellate Authority upheld the decision of the PIO.  She approached the Commission in second Appeal. Though demand was not for copy of charge-sheet, the appellant agreed that a copy of charge-sheet would answer his application. Then issue before the Commission was whether charge sheet was public document, and if so could that be shared under RTI Act with any citizen.

CIC Prof Sridhar Acharyulu explained: ‘The charge sheet is a report held by the investigating officer, or public authority or court of law. As per the RTI Act, any information held by the public authority can be accessed by the citizen subject to the exceptions provided under Section 8. Because the charge-sheet contains the evidence which need to be adduced in the court of law, there is a possibility of opening up many details which could be personal or private or confidential. If the allegation requires to be proved by call data, the charge sheet refers to sheets of call data, which surely contain call details unrelated to allegation. That could be private information need to be protected. Hence each charge sheet has to be separately examined and only after separating unnecessary and unrelated details of evidence, and only required and permissible information out of chargesheet should be disclosed. Thus Charge-sheet can neither be prohibited enbloc from disclosure nor disclosed totally. Charge-sheet is a document held by concerned authority, which has to examine disclosable aspects vis-a-vis Section 8 and 9 of the RTI Act and then decide the case’.

As per the Criminal Procedure, the charge-sheet is the end product of investigation. With filing of charge-sheet, the investigation is closed and defense that investigation might get impeded does not stand at all.    Whether revealing the information impedes apprehension or prosecution is the next question. The Respondent authority did not even raise this point and did nothing to explain the Commission about possibility of impeding apprehension/prosecution by disclosure.  The Public Authority just mentioned the section number and did nothing else. The First Appellate Authority also did not apply the mind and chose not to give any reasons for upholding the denial by PIO. The exemption of larger public interest provided in Section 8(1) is not available to this clause (h). Thus it has to be decided on facts whether disclosure of charge-sheet will really obstruct investigation, apprehension or prosecution. The judgment of the Delhi High Court in W.P.(C) No.3114/2007 – Shri Bhagat Singh Vs. Chief Information Commissioner & Ors on this aspect is of relevance, since it deals with the applicability of the Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act 2005: S Ravinder Bhat J specifically notes, “As held in the preceding part of the judgment, without a disclosure as to how the investigation process would be hampered by sharing the materials collected till the notices were issued to the assessee, the respondents could not have rejected the request for granting information. …”

It can be inferred that there is no specific provision anywhere prohibiting the disclosure of charge-sheet and if there disclosure does not affect investigation or prosecution it can be permitted under RTI, unless there is a public interest against disclosure. The chargesheets containing charges under Prevention of Corruption Act, especially against public servants, need to be in public domain, in public interest.

Citing several decisions the CIC said: There is no specific provision under any law which state that charge-sheet is a public document, but there are several judgment of the Supreme court and High court which clarify that charge sheet is a public document. Queen-Empress v. Arumugan and Ors ( (1897) ILR 20 Mad 189) has held that any person has an interest in criminal proceeding has a right to inspect under section 76 of the Indian Evidence Act. In N David Vijay Kumar v The Pallavan Gram Bank, Indian Bank in File No. CIC/SG/A/2012/000189 CIC Mr Shailesh Gandhi ordered disclosure of Charge sheet ruling out the contention of exemption under Section 8(1)(j).

On the perusal of the RTI application, the Commission found that the  information sought by the applicant are the part and parcel of the information contain in the charge-sheet prepared after the completion of the investigation under section 173 of Cr. P. C. The purpose of the appellant will be served if the copy of the same would be provided to the appellant. The respondent authority also agreed to provide the copy of charge sheet.

Considering the provisions of Cr.P.C., Evidence Act, RTI Act, erudite judicial pronouncements, certain transparency practices in CVC,  facts and circumstances of the case and contentions raised, the Commission holds that the charge sheet is a public document and it shall be disclosed subject to other restrictions provided under RTI Act. There cannot be a general hard and fast rule that every charge-sheet could be disclosed or should not be. Each RTI request for copy of Charge-sheet required to be examined and only permissible part should be given.  The Commission, hence, directed the respondent to examine the content of charge-sheet and to provide appellant/… the copy of those portions of charge-sheet, which would answer the queries raised by appellant in his RTI application, within 3 weeks from the date of receipt of the order.

Courtesy:http://confederationhq.blogspot.in/

Uploading of RTI replies on the respective website of Ministry/ Department

No.1/1/2013-IR

Government of India

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

Department of Personnel & Training

North Block, New Delhi-1

Dated : 21-10-2014

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Uploading of RTI replies on the respective website of Ministry/ Department.

Attention is invited to DOPT’s guidelines on suo motu disclosure issued vide 0M. No.1/6/2011-IR dated 15-4-2013 whereby Public Authorities have an obligation to proactively disclose RTI applications and appeals received by them and their responses on their websites.

2. In order to facilitate uploading of RTI applications/appeals received and their responses on the website, a new feature has been added to the CPIO/FAA’s module on the ‘RTI online” portal on pilot basis for DOPT. This feature provides an option to the CPIO and FAA to upload the reply to RTI application and first appeal respectively on the website of the Department.

3. This feature is now being extended to other Ministries/Departments of Government of India. For displaying the RTI applications received in the Ministry/Department and the reply furnished thereof, by the use of the said feature, web services would be provided through a URL to each Ministry/Department by NIC/DOPT. The concerned Ministry/Department needs to consume this web service (by writing a program) to display the desired contents on its respective website. Accordingly, it is requested that the Ministries/Departments may contact NIC/DOPT (Shri Y. V. Ramana and Shri Manu Garg, Scientist D’/NlC — Ph- 23040281) for this purpose. An immediate action is requested so that the facility to upload the reply to RTI application and first appeal respectively on the website of the respective Ministry/Department may be started w.e.f. 31st October, 2014.

4, It may be noted that RTI applications and appeals received and their responses relating to the personal information of an individual may not be disclosed, if they do not serve any public interest.

sd/-

(Sandeep Jain)

Director(IR)

Source: http://ccis.nic.in/WriteReadData/CircularPortal/D2/D02rti/1_1_2013-IR-1-A.pdf

RTI 2005

RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT 

Why RTI ?

•   To  promote transparency  &  accountability  in  the  working of every public authority

What is the date of enactment?

•   15.06.2005

When the act came  into force?

•   On 120th day of its enactment i.e. 12.10.2005

Why RTI act came  into force after a long period?

•   Since   every  public  authority  has   to  create  an   official   website and publish the particulars about its organisation, functions, duties.

•    Further  names of  the  PIO,    Appellate  Authorities  etc  should be published

Who is eligible to get an information?

•   Any Indian citizen can get information

How to make request for obtaining information?

•   Orally (assistance to be given  to reduce in writing,

•   Writing

•   Electronical form (Online)

In which language applicant can seek  information?

•   English, Hindi (or) Official  Language of the area

Is there any  prescribed format for seeking information?

•   No

•    But every public authority has  to publish a proforma of applicationin their website for the convenience of applicants

Should reasons for seeking information be furnished?

•   It is not required to furnish reason for seeking any  informationunder

RTIact

Information means

o Records

o Documents

o Memos

o E-mails

o Opinions

o Advices

o Press releases

o Circulars

o Orders

o Data material in any  electronic form

o    Any Information relating to any  private body  which can  be accessedby a public authority

Record

•   Documents, files,  manuscript,

•   Microfilm, fax,

•   Reproduction of film or images embodied in such  film,

•   Any other material produced by a computer or anelectronic device. Right to information

•   Inspection of works, documents & records,

•   take notes, extracts, certified copy of documents & records,

•   Take certified samples of materials,

•    Obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies,tapes, video cassettes  or  in   any   other  electronic mode  or  through  printouts where such   information is  stored in a  computer  or in  any   other device;

Various Fees

Fee  for seeking information	Rs 10/- per application
Fee  for copy of records per page	Rs 2/- for A4 / A3 size paper, if itis larger than A3, actual cost
Fee  for Samples / Models	Actual cost
In electronic form	Rs. 50/- per Diskettes / Floppy
Inspection of records	Free for first one hour & Rs. 5/- per hour or part thereoffor each subsequent hours
Modes  of payment	Cash against a proper receipt DD / Cheque / IPO  / Electronicmeans

The   above   fees   are  exempted  for  Citizens  Below   Poverty  Line  (Supporting documents should be furnished)

Time  limit for furnishing Information:

    30 days  from the date of receipt of application.

    48 hours if involves the life or liberty of a person.

    40 days  if involves the interests of a third party.

    If no  response is  given  by  the public authority  on  RTI application within the time limit, the same treated as deemedrefusal

Obligation & time limit for CAPIO  / other offices

Forward the application to concerned PIO  within 5 days  withintimation to the applicant

Proactive disclosures under RTI Act

    Every Public Authority must proactively disclose the following:

•    Particulars of the organization, its functions and  duties;

•    Procedure followed  in its decision making process

•    Norms set out for the discharge of its functions;

•   Rules, regulations, instructions,  manuals  and   records used by its employees for the discharge of its functions,

•    Arrangement for consultation with or representation by thepublic, in policy formulation/implementation;

•   Designate  Public  Information  Officer to  provide  information to applicants

•    Also to designate APIOs  at sub-divisional/district level

•    No bar on the number of such  PIOs/APIOs

•   Designate appellate authority for the first appeal within thepublic authority

Exemption from disclosures – Section 8(1)

a)  Information which would  prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of

India

b)  Information which has  been  expressly forbidden by any  court

c)  Information  which  would   cause  a  breach  of  privilege  of parliament/state legislature

d)  Information relating  to commercial confidence, trade  secrets, thedisclosure which would  harm the competitive position of a third party

e)  Information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship.

f)   Information received in confidence from foreign govt.

g)  Information, the  disclosure of  which  would   endanger the  life  or physical safety of any  person

h)  Information which would  impede the process of investigation orapprehension

or prosecution of offenders;

i)   Cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the council  ofministers, secretaries and  other officers.

j)   Information which relates  to personal information, the disclosure ofwhich has  no  relationship to any  public activity or interest,  or whichwould  cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual

Exemption fromdisclosures –Section 8(2)

     Information comes  under official secrets act, 1923

Section 9

    Information  which  would   infringe the  copyright subsisting in  a person

Section 10  (Severability)

    Where a request for information is rejected vide  sections 8/9above, access may  be  provided to that  part of the recordwhich does  not contain  any    information   which   is  exempted   from   disclosure (provided that part can  besevered without causing any  damage to any  part thatcontains exempt information)

Section-11 (Third Party Information)

    CPIO  intends to disclose, shall give  a written notice to thirdparty within 5 days

     Third party to make representation within 10 days.

    CPIO  shall make a  decision keeping in  view  of thesubmission of third party

    However the  information may   be  disclosed  if  the  publicinterest outweighs the harm or injury to be caused to the thirdparty.

     If he prefer appeal, CPIO  has  to finalize based on the decisionof the

First AppellateAuthority

Appeals

If  the applicant is  not satisfied with the  information received or if no information is provided by the PA within the prescribed time limit, hecan  prefer appeals in following  two stages.

Stageof appeal	Towhom (AppellateAuthority) (AA)	Time  limit withinwhich appealshould bepreferred by the applicant	Time  limit for disposal of byAppellateAuthority
First (Internal)	DesignatedDepartmental Appellate Authority	30 days  fromthe date ofdecision of PIO	30 to 45 days
Second (External)	Central / StateInformationCommission (CIC/SIC)	90 days  fromthe date ofdecision ofFirst AA	No limit

Penalities

Public Authority is liable to a fine  of Rs 250/- per day,  subject to amaximum of Rs. 25,000/-  for

     Not accepting an application;

     Delaying information release without reasonable cause;

     Malafidely denying information;

     Knowingly giving  incomplete, incorrect or misleading information;

     Destroying information that has  been  requested; and

     Obstructing furnishing of information in any  manner.

SIC/CIC has  the power to impose penalty & recommend for disciplinary action

RTI Online Portal                           -                      www.rtionline.gov.in