CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION
.....
F.No.CIC/AT/A/2008/00745
Dated, the 17th November, 2008.
Appellant : Ms. Farhat Amna
Respondents : Department of Expenditure
This second-appeal was heard on 12.11.2008. Appellant as well as the
respondents were present. The RTI-application of the appellant dated 08.04.2008
asked for information relating to upgradation of certain posts following the Fifth
Pay Commission Report, which, according to the appellant, created certain
anomalies which were later corrected. She has, therefore, provided three sets of
proforma in which she has urged the Ministry of Finance to collect a large
variety of information relating to her query and provide it to her.
2. The response of the CPIO was that the Ministry of Finance held no such
information and was not in a position to generate it for the appellant.
3. Appellant has claimed that information has been denied to her mala-fide
because, according to her, it is not true ⎯ as stated by respondents ⎯ that the
decisions in such matters are made on the files of the functional Ministries,
which are transmitted to the Ministry of Finance, who record their
recommendation/decision on that file which is then returned to the parent
Ministry, and that Ministry of Finance does not retain the information in a
parallel file.
4. It is not uncommon for this Commission to receive this kind of petitions
from employees asking for voluminous information which they expect should be
culled out from hundreds of files and provided to them even if such information
is not held by a given Ministry / department or public authority. In this case, no
such centralized information is held, surely not in the form in which the appellant
has requested it. This is a diffused piece of information which is held by several
Ministries and Departments which had apparently issued orders, memoranda, etc.
corresponding to the decision of the Pay Commission following consultation
with the Ministry of Finance. It would be a Herculean task to collect all these
memoranda, orders, circulars and compile them in the form in which the
appellant has requested in order to make it convenient for her to access all this
information at one place. Information as requested is doubtless voluminous
compiling which will not only be nearly impossible but also be expensive leading
to unnecessary diversion of the resources of the public authority.
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5. It is, therefore, directed that there shall be no disclosure of the requested
information. The decision of the Appellate Authority is upheld.
6. Appeal is disposed of with these directions.
7. Copy of this decision be sent to the parties.
( A.N. TIWARI )
INFORMATION COMMISSIONER
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