Twitter

Facebook

Youtube

RSS

Hindi News | Samay | UP/Uttarakhand | MP/Chhattisgarh | Bihar/Jharkhand | Rajasthan | Aalami Samay
  Rashtriya Sahara Roznama Sahara
DU official fined Rs 25K for rejecting RTI query on Modi's degree
Last Updated : 08 Jan 2017 02:55:36 PM IST
(File photo)
(File photo)
 

The Central Information Commission has slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on Delhi University's Central Public Information Officer for rejecting an RTI application seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's graduation degree.

The Chief Information Commission, M. Sridhar Acharyulu, in a recent order, pulled up CPIO Meenakshi Sahay of Delhi University and said the rejections reminded him of the saying "penny wise, pound foolish".

The commission was hearing a plea filed by Delhi-based lawyer Mohammad Irsad, whose RTI query seeking inspection of Modi's degree was rejected on the ground that the Indian Postal Order (IPO) was not marked in favour of the Registrar of the university.

The commission, directing the "public authority" to recover an amount of Rs 25,000 from the salary payable to Sahay, said that after hearing the story that thousands of rupees had been spent in a legal battle for a postal order of Rs 10, "the proverb 'penny wise, pound foolish' has to be rewritten as 'rupee wise and thousand foolish' ".



Sahay in her defence argued that there was no malice in rejecting the RTI application and that she had to follow the policies laid down by the university.

The commission did not find any merit or justification in her argument, stating that the fee was not a material factor to throw out an RTI request.

It said it was "vexed with non response" from the CPIO to a number of its notices and thus found it a fit case to impose penalty.

Calling the CPIO's action "pathetic", the commissioner said in the order that "such a simple request for information has been dragged to the level of second appeal, building heaps of documents with multiple files".

The commission also slammed Delhi University for "spending huge amounts of money and consuming precious time of public servants", including the commission.

It also asked the "public authority", without defining it, to facilitate sufficient training to the entire staff, including the CPIO, in the matter of RTI law so that they do not reject applications in a routine manner without application of mind.

The commission recommended that officials be provided with the latest books on the RTI Act as well as classic text books on administrative law. It suggested they should also be given the books "Right to Know" by late professor S.P. Sathe and "Five-point Someone: What Not To Do At IIT" by Chetan Bhagat.

 



IANS
For Latest Updates Please-

Join us on

Follow us on


What binds the two most talked about nations - India and Pakistan together? What makes the

Raipur-based lawyer Faizan Khan – who was arrested in connection with the extortion-cum-

LG Electronics Inc said on Wednesday that it will introduce new C with its artificial inte

 

Samay Live
Samay Live
Samay Live
Samay Live
Samay Live
Samay Live
Samay Live
Samay Live

172.31.16.186