The CIC said the information sought by the appellant must be provided and MCD must ensure that it must available suo moto in fulfilment of its duties under Section 4 of the RTI Act. This is the 187th in a series of important judgements given by former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi that can be used or quoted in an RTI application

The Central Information Commission (CIC), while allowing an appeal, directed the Public Information Officer (PIO) at the office of the Superintending Engineer in Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to provide entire information sought by the appellant and comply with Section 4 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

While giving the judgement on 9 June 2009, Shailesh Gandhi, the then Central Information Commissioner said, "The information sought by the appellant must be provided and MCD must ensure that this must available suo moto in fulfilment of its duties under Section 4 of the RTI Act."

Delhi resident, Harpal Singh Rana, on 29 December 2008, sought from the PIO information regarding employees, works assigned and carried out for road making in Delhi. Here is the information he sought and the reply provided by the PIO...

1. How many Departments and offices are working under Civil Line Zone, Give address of all those department and offices?     

PIO's reply- Ward No. 5,6,7 and 8 comes under Civil Line Zone's E.E.M-I address of which below mentioned:-

Sub-Engineer, M-I,

Civil Line Zone, 16, Rajpur Road,

Delhi.

2. Give details of appointment of officers and employees in the respective department.

PIO's reply- Mr. V.K.Grover (AE), Mr. V.S.Chouhan (JE), Mr.V.K.Gupta (AE), Mr. Amit (JE), Mr. Yashpal Raahilla (JE), Mr.Jagmohan Sharma (JE).

3. Give the details of vacancy in the all department on said ward.    

PIO's reply- There is no vacancy.

4. Give the details of income and expenditure on different items in different departments and offices.     

PIO's reply- The copy had already been provided.

5. The details of given duties of officers and employees related to Civil line zone.

PIO's reply- It is related to Town Hall Head quarters.

6. Give the following details in written of development work in wards:-

a)      Name of work

b)      Brief description of work

c)      Approved amount of work

d)      Approval date of work

e)      Status of the work

f)       Name of the agency.

Give the details of the kind of guarantee or time limit was provided.

PIO's reply- The copy had already been provided.

7. Please give the details of population density and total area of Bhalsva, in the Jahangirpur ward J.J.Colony, Nagali Poona, Kadipur area etc. 

PIO's reply- It is not related to this part of question.

8. Give the details of agencies which did the work of excavation and cutting of road for which purpose in what time in all the wards from April 2007 to Nov, 2008.       

PIO's reply- No excavation work of road had begun in the said wards.

9. Give the details of dates and amount deposited by agencies and expenditure in different wards. 

PIO's reply- -As above-

Not satisfied with the PIO's reply, Rana filed his first appeal. In his order, the First Appellate Authority (FAA) directed the PIO to provide information on points 4, 5 and 6.

Rana, then approached the CIC with his second appeal.

After hearing Rana, the appellant and the PIO, the Bench of Mr Gandhi, said, "The nature of information sought by the appellant should have been provided suo moto by the public authority. It is apparent that this is not been done and MCD is not fulfilling its basic duties under Section 4 of the RTI Act. The then PIO Pushkar Sharma is also guilty of not providing information in time and not complying with the direction of the first appellate authority."

While allowing the appeal, the Bench directed the PIO to provide entire information to Rana. The CIC also asked the additional commissioner for revenues at MCD to ensure compliance with Section 4 of the RTI Act, and make available all the information on the MCD website before 15 August 2009.

CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION

Decision No. CIC/SG/A/2009/000891/3620

http://ciconline.nic.in/cic_decisions/SG-09062009-05.pdf

Appeal No. CIC/SG/A/2009/000891

Appellant                                         : Harpal Singh Rana

                                                            Delhi-110036

Respondent                                      : Pushkar Sharma

                                                             PIO

                                                            Municipal Corporation of Delhi

                                                            Office of the Superintending Engineer

                                                            Civil Lines Zone

                                                            Delhi