Central Information Commission
Appeal No.CIC/WB/A/2008/00988-SM dated 02.03.2008
Right to Information Act-2005-Under Section (19)
Dated 19.03.2009
Appellant : Shri Ayub Ali
Respondent : Ordnance Clothing Factory, Sahjahanpur (UP),
Ministry of Defrence
The Appellant is present.
On behalf of the Respondent, the following are present:-
(i) Shri P. Biswas, AGM
(ii) Shri S.K. Singh, DGM
The brief facts of the case are as under.
2. The Appellant had given application to the CPIO on 2 March 2008 for obtaining samples
of the thread supplied to the factory under various supply orders and some other related
information. The CPIO in the reply dated 19 months 2008 denied the information by referring to
section 8(1)(d) and (j) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Appellant, thereafter, preferred an
appeal before the first Appellate Authority who disposed of the appeal in his order dated 6 May
2008. He merely endorsed the decision of the CPIO. Aggrieved by the order of the first Appellate
Authority, the Appellant has now approached as in second appeal.
3. During the hearing, we heard the submissions of the Appellant as well as that of the
Respondent. We do not agree with the CPIO that the information sought could not be disclosed
under any provision of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. In fact, the Appellant had wanted to
have samples of the material supplied to the factory and the report of the laboratory where the
said material was tested. Since the Public Authority had procured the material based on certain
parameters, it is important that the information regarding the conformity of the supplied material
with the desired parameters is placed in the public domain for the sake of transparency.
Therefore, we strongly advise the CPIO not to deny such information in future. We also direct him
to provide to the Appellant within 10 working days from the receipt of this order copies of the
laboratory reports of all the material supplied to the factory under the relevant supply orders and
the capacity verification reports as stated in the application of the Appellant and samples of the
material, if still available. The Respondent explained that two of the supply orders mentioned in
the Appellant’s application did not refer to any material but to job work and, therefore, there was
CIC/WB/A/2008/00988
no sample nor any laboratory report available for these two supply orders. In order to dispel any
doubt in the mind of the Appellant in this regard, with direct the CPIO to provide copies of the said
two supply orders. The CPIO must report compliance of our order soon thereafter.
4. With the above direction, we dispose off this appeal.
5. Copies of this order be given free of cost to the parties.
Sd/-
(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
CIC/WB/A/2008/00988