Dear all: We have to be careful while preparing the RTI application. The PIOs are supposed to provide information, not answer questions .
So the questions have to be framed carefully which are in the nature of seeking information. We cannot prepare questions like the MPs/MLAs do before the Parliament/ Legislative Assemblies . Arun AGRAWAL ________________________________ From: Trivendra To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, 9 July, 2009 9:27:49 Subject: Re: [rti_india] Justifications not part of info under RTI: HC Dear Sir Of course it misinterpretation on the part of HC. Had the applicant asked the "all reasons of not filling the post", the application would have served the purpose. I have also been denied mny quetions by ALLAHABAD BANK PIO at KOLKATA taking plea of cited case. However I framed the letter asking reasons. Regards Trivendra Lucknow On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 11:39 AM, neeraj aggarwal <weaknessasin@ yahoo.co. in>wrote: > > > > > Justifications not part of info under RTI: HC > 9 Jul 2009, 0550 hrs IST, Gauree Malkarnekar, TNN > > > http://timesofindia .indiatimes. com/Cities/ Goa/Justificatio ns-not-part- > of-info-under- RTI-HC/articlesh ow/4755825. cms > > PANAJI: An order of the high court of Bombay at Goa, stating that the > definition for information under the Right to Information Act cannot include > answers to the question "why", which would be the same thing as asking the > reason for a justification, has been circulated to Central ministries and > departments. > > Bringing relief to public information authorities, the high court of Bombay > at Goa held: "The public information authorities cannot expect to > communicate to citizens the reason why a certain thing was done or not done > in the sense of justification because the citizen makes a requisition about > information. Justifications are matter within the domain of adjudicating > authorities and cannot properly be classified as information. " > > The judgment was circulated by office memorandum dated June 1, 2009 to all > ministries, departments and state information commissions of the government > of India by the Centre's department of personnel and training. The judgment > has also been circulated in the Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha, and offices of > the President and Prime Minister. > > The judgment, dated April 3, 2008, came in favour of Goa's director of > education Celsa Pinto, who had challenged an order dated July 27, 2007 > passed by the Goa Information Commission holding her responsible for > furnishing "incorrect, incomplete or misleading information" . > > Education department's legal officer Avinash Nasnodkar said that the > judgment appears to have brought relief to several government officials > across the country. "Several copies of the judgment were picked up from us > by all government offices in Goa and the judgment has now been circulated > all over the country by the central government. At times officials are > harassed using the RTI act for wrong purposes. They are expected to have an > answer to anything and everything. At least now they will not be challenged > or penalised for not justifying things they have no control over." > > The judgment states that section 2 (f) of the RTI Act defines information > to mean "any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, > e-mails, opinions, advises, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, > contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any > electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be > accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in > force." > > The case pertained to information sought by Milan Natekar, a government > servant, seeking to know from the education director, in this case also the > public information officer, "why the librarian from the engineering college > was not considered for promotion for the post of curator in the Central > library when it had fallen vacant due to retirement" of the person holding > the position. > > Initially, the director had replied "N.A." to all questions posed by > Natekar, and when the latter sought clarifications, the director replied > that the abbreviation stood for "not available". To the question as to why > the post of librarian was not filled up, the director stated: "I don't > know". Natekar then approached the Goa Information Commission (GIC). > > Ruling in the matter, the GIC held that the education director was guilty > of furnishing incomplete, misleading and false information and imposed a > penalty of Rs 5,000 which was "liable to be deducted from her salary from > the month of August 2007". > > Nasnodkar and advocate J A Lobo challenged the commission's order in the > high court. Lobo argued that GIC wrongly held that the director provided > incomplete and misleading information. > > The court held that, "it is not possible to comprehend how the commission > has come to this conclusion" and that it saw nothing wrong in the director's > reply that she does not know the information because "PIO cannot manufacture > the information" . > > The court also held that "it is not possible to accept the reasoning of the > commission. There is no substance in the observation that merely because the > director said not available' and later on corrected her statement and said > that she does not know and the petitioner provided incomplete and incorrect > information. > > "In this view of the matter, the order of the commission appears to suffer > from a serious error of law apparent on record and results in the > miscarriage of justice," the court held. > var zz=0;var sldsh=0; > var bellyaddiv = ' '; > var stindex=100; > var stp=150; > var taglen=0; > var tmp; > var tagcheck = new Array("div", "span","br" ,"font"," a"); > var storycontent = document.getElement ById("storydiv" ).innerHTML; > var firstpara = > storycontent. substring( 0,storycontent. toLowerCase( ).indexOf( " > > ")).toLowerCase( ); > function findptt(cnt) { > zz++; > if(zz == 10)return; > var xxx=-1,yyy=- 1; > var ccnt = cnt; > for(ii=0; ii < tagcheck.length; ii++){ > xxx = ccnt.indexOf( " > > Love Cricket? Check out live scores, photos, video highlights and more. > Click here http://cricket. yahoo.com > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
