Central Information Commission
Appeal No. CIC/WB/A/2007/00911-SM dated 21.07.2007
Right to Information Act-2005 - Under Section (19)
Dated 20.10.2008
Appellant - Shri Dharm Prakash Verma
Respondents - Addl. Secretary & FAA, MOD
ORDER
Shri Dharm Prakash Verma of Dehradun has filed this appeal to the
Commission against the order of the First Appellate Authority in the Ministry of
Defence. The appeal dated 21.7.2007 was received in the Commission on
27.7.2007 and got transferred to us in September, 2008. The brief facts of the
case are as under.
2. Shri Verma had approached the CPIO in the President’s Secretariat asking
for seven items of information regarding several petitions he had filed earlier to
the President of India. In response to his letter dated 23.3.2007, he received a
reply from the CPIO in the department of Defence, dated 27.4.2007. This reply
was not satisfactory and hence, as advised by the CPIO of the Ministry of
Defence, he preferred his first appeal before the Joint secretary and First
Appellate Authority in the Ministry. On reading the first appeal it is noted that he
was no longer pursuing much of the information he had originally sought from
the CPIO in the President Secretariat.
3. On behalf of the First Appellate Authority in the Ministry of Defence, the
CPIO transferred the appeal to the D.S.P. to process it in consultation with the
Appellate Authority in the Department of Defence Production. Finally, the
Additional Secretary, Defence Production and Appellate Authority in that
Department wrote to the appellant on 4th June, 2007 merely informing him the
status of action on his petition dated 2.12.2005 along with other representations
received at that stage as had been indicated by that Department, O.F. Wing in
letter dated 10.5.2007. Strangely, the letter of the First Appellate Authority in the
department of Defence Production does not carry with it a copy of that letter.
Thus, after so much correspondence among various Government offices, the
appellant is hardly any wiser.
4. What strikes one in this case is the total lack of clarity within the Ministry
about who should process this case. His request for information to the CPIO in
the President Secretariat has been handled not in the President’s Secretariat but
in the Ministry of Defence. And within the Ministry of Defence itself, the matter
has been dealt with in two different departments. At the end, it is still unclear as
to who would finally reply and furnish the information to the applicant/appellant
which had been sought.
5. In view of the above, I remand this case to the First Appellate Authority in
the department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence with the direction
that he should consider the appeal once again at some length and ensure that
specific and detailed replies on the revised items of information sought by the
appellant in his first appeal should be provided to him within 15 working days
from the date of this order and compliance reported to this Commission.
6. The appeal is thus disposed off. Copies of this order be given free of cost
to the parties.
(Satyananda Mishra)
Information Commissioner
Authenticated true copy. Additional copies of orders shall be supplied
against application and payment of the charges prescribed under the Act to the
CPIO of this Commission.
(Vijay Bhalla)
Assistant Registrar