Dear All,
The following is for General Information and future case reference.
Appeared in  "Times of India", Mumbai edition, dated 02,July'2008, page no. 13.
Keep Smiling ... Hemant Agarwal

CIC fines official for RTI plea inaction

New Delhi: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has slapped a penalty of Rs 25,000 on the School of Planning and Architecture’s (SPA) public information officer for inaction on a Right to Information appeal for over three months.
   In his order, information commissioner O P Kejriwal has directed the PIO, D R Bains, to pay Rs 25,000 for causing a delay of “more than 100 days in providing the required information to the appellant’’. He has ordered the SPA director in charge and appellate authority, K T Ravindran, to ensure compliance in recovery of the penalty by August 10.
   The appellant had asked for information relating to the action taken against his daughter who was not permitted to sit for an exam due to shortage of attendance.
   In his RTI filed on September 1, 2006, to the HRD ministry, appellant Ramesh Chandra had sought to know what action was being taken against Prof Mahavir, head of the department of physical planning, and Prof Subir Saha, SPA director-in charge, for their “misconduct’’ in detaining his daughter and other students from appearing for an exam.