As everyone knows, it is mandatory to write your name and address in the RTI application. And that’s enough proof of your identity. However, the Central Public Information Officer (PIO) of Housing & Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) demanded Aadhaar card as proof of the applicant’s identity and proof of residence. Central Information Commission (CIC) scuttled this demand, penalised the CPIO for Rs25,000 and stated that he cannot “invent’’ new grounds for denying information.
The CIC ordered him to provide information regarding HUDCO’s Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), Ravi Kant, who allegedly has blown up Rs5 crore of public money on gifts and renovation of his official residence.
The order by CIC Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu, stated that, ‘nowhere does the RTI Act prohibit a ‘person’ from securing the information, or authorises the PIO to demand proof of citizenship.’ In reply to the show cause notice served by the CIC, the CPIO has also audaciously stated that, it was his duty” not to give information to non-citizens.’’
RTI Applicant Vishwas Bhamburkar sought the following information:
a) total amount spent from the coffers of HUDCO by Mr Ravi Kant, CMD, on gifts for the financial years 2013-14 to 2015-16;
b) the names of the beneficiaries of the gifts; total amount spent from the coffers of HUDCO for the renovation of the official residence of its CMD at ASIAD village, New Delhi;
c) total number of air-conditioners installed at the amount spent from the coffers of HUDCO;
d) total amount spent on electricity bills of the official residence of its CMD from the coffers of HUDCO;
e) amount of salary/remuneration paid to Mr. Rajkumar and Mr. Harish, who are employed/attached in any capacity in the office of the CMD;
f) number of complaints pending against Mr. Ravi Kant, CMD of HUDCO; recipients of such gifts were senior officers/public servants and the price of each unit of branded premium pens such as Mont Blanc gifted by Mr. Ravi Kant to various persons
Demand for Aadhaar Card
However, HUDCO CPIO Dr DK Gupta wrote a letter to Mr Bhamburkar, the applicant, demanding proof of identity and proof of address by producing Aadhaar card, voter’s ID card or passport as proof of citizenship. No information was provided.
Mr Bhamburkar then filed his first appeal. However, the First Appellate Authority (FAA) Akhilesh Kumar of HUDCO too demanded proof of identity, verification of address and establishing citizenship of the appellant. The CIC in his order observed: “his (CPIO’s) intention to deny was also established explanation given by him to the show cause notice. Dr Gupta admitted that he insisted on the applicant to submit proof of identity, proof of address, proof of citizenship and specifically demanded Aadhaar card or passport or voter ID card and refused to consider his RTI request otherwise. He reiterated that it was his duty “not to give information to non-citizens”.
To this the CIC countered: “Section 6(2) of RTI Act says: An applicant making a request for information shall not be required to give any reason for requesting the information or any other personal details except those that may be necessary for contacting him. Applicant had provided the address to which information could have been dispatched. As per law he need not provide any confirmation for his address, name or citizenship. Dr Gupta said he has a duty to give information only to citizens and has no duty to give information to non-citizen.’’
Spending of public money should be made transparent
The Commission also mentioned in its order: “Representative of the appellant Shri Mukul Jain alleged that around five crore rupees worth of malpractice is going on in HUDCO in the form of giving and receiving of gifts involving senior people in the ministry, and it was not known as to who asked for those gifts and who received them. He said that gifts like iPhone, Mont Blanc Pens, and iPads were given to the senior authorities of their ministry by Mr Ravi Kant, IAS, Managing Director of HUDCO. He also said that the CPIO had no authority to demand the identity proof and to ascertain whether information available will be useful to him either personally or socially or nationally. Does he not know that they are spending public money on gifts, residence of the MD and his office, and they should be disclosing such information to the public in general as per the RTI Act?”
In addition, the CIC stated that, “the CPIO can deny information only under Section 8 and 9. He cannot invent new grounds for denial like lack of Aadhaar Card, voter ID card, passport etc. This Section was violated by Dr DK Gupta as he did not give any information in 30 days and beyond also.’’
The CIC also observed that a citizen has been defined in the RTI Act thus: “The RTI Act, 2005 uses the expression Citizen in Section 3, but these two CPIOs do not see that the expression ‘person’ is used in
- Section 6 (Request for obtaining information)– “A person who desires to obtain any information under this Act, shall...”,
- Section 7 (Disposal of Request, duty of CPIO) proviso under subsections (1), (6), (8),
- Section 18 (Complaint by any person),
- Section 19( Appeal by any person). A ‘person’ cannot be denied information on the pretext that he did not produce proof of citizenship.
In addition, the CPIOs and FAA was insisting on Aadhaar card to give information. Hence the Commission held that CPIO was liable to pay a penalty of Rs25,000.”
Apparently, HUDCO has sought legal intervention, but the writer could not confirm this.
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Vinita Deshmukh is consulting editor of Moneylife, an RTI activist and convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting, which she won twice in 1998 and 2005, and the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book, “To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte”, with Vinita Kamte, and is the author of “The Mighty Fall”.)
They waste taxpayers hard earned money... This is a very good example to teach lessons to PSU people...