Whispers Forum

The Appellant filed an RTI application seeking information about the merit list for each category for Office Assistant (Assistant) appointed under direct recruitment in 2011 and related information. Before the CIC, the Respondent submitted that the instant case is identical to an earlier decided case of the Appellant vide File No. CIC/DIOAT/A/2022/609371 dated 01.02.2023. After perusal of records, the CIC observed that concededly, the instant RTI Application is a sly repetition of an earlier RTI Application filed by the Appellant on 02.11.2021 which has been decided vide File No. CIC/DIOAT/A/2022/609371 dated 01.02.2023. In other words, points 2 & 5 of the RTI Application of 02.11.2021 corresponds to point no.3 of the instant RTI Application while point no.7 of the former RTI Application corresponds to point no. 4 of the instant RTI Application. Therefore, the CIC held that the instant matter is devoid of any such material on record that warrants determination of a fresh issue for consideration.
Comment
An applicant should realise that there is an expenditure on every RTI Application, which is paid from the Taxpayers money. Repeating RTI applications on the same issue not only leads to unnecessary wastage of time and resources, but also causes delay in disposal of appeals by the other RTI applicants.
Citation: Naresh Kumar v. Defense Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune; Second Appeal No. CIC/DIOAT/A/2023/621378; Date of Decision: 05.08.2024
Dr Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is a RTI Consultant currently working with IIM Visakhapatnam. She has co-authored the books, RTI Right to Information - Law and Practice and PIO’s Guide to RTI. She offers consultancy on RTI matters and Third party audit. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link www.rtifoundationofindia.com

I am in favour of the amendment because it's high-time to prioritise the nation's interest over the interests of a particular section. The Waqf Board, instead of serving its purpose, has become a medium to capture land, spread hatred, and empower a select few. Despite having vast resources, the Muslim literacy rate remains low, indicating the Board's ineffectiveness. In reality, the Waqf Board has become a property of the elite class, who exploit it for personal gain, deviating from its original vision of uplifting the entire Muslim community. It's time for a change.
Dr Nidhi Jain

September reminds us about the value and practical utility of the use of Hindi and other Indian languages for public service. Why is there so much upheaval in society these days? There is a disturbing disquiet in all walks of life: governance, business, employment, justice, health, education, security and general well being across sections of population. Civic sense is absent and discipline has eroded. Moral values are archived. There is too much of violence all around. It has increased disputes and court cases have become unmanageable. How much does English language owe it? All quarrels in Delhi start in English and land up in courts, where paid advocacy uses ample lies to fight the case. Yes, we know English but not sufficiently enough to match our rich Hindi and Sanskrit. Take for example this: a single word “maryada” has the potential of millions of English words, especially in legal disputes, and can save crores in court fees/lawyer fees. The tensions at personal or family or society level emerge due to parties to the matter forgetting their maryada. It seems today that everyone is eager to breach her/his Maryada to humiliate the other party. Less English and more Hindi/MIL will only enrich relationships.
M L Gupta

The Bihar government is carrying out a Survey of Land Records. There are many unscrupulous, criminal elements who are planning to do fraudulent registration of sale of land, followed by getting changes made in ownership of land during Survey, based on fraudulent sale papers. The only way out is to freeze registration of sale of land till the Survey is over.
Vijay Kumar
Updating KYC in banks
Mr ML Gupta is correct in saying that in the name of updating KYC in Banks, they are literally harassing the ordinary senior citizen. Once KYC is done, I personally asked with my SBI branch in Pune, what shall be the frequency of updating KYC and she told 5 years. My other bank where I get pension, the Punjab National Bank said that it is two years. And the Indian Overseas Bank in New Delhi refused to close my savings account saying that you first get its KYC updated and then only they will close the account. So I shall again have to go to New Delhi, stay there for more than two days to close a savings account. Just harassment of senior citizens. Hope PMO takes note of such harassment.
Shirish Asthana
Silly concept of parivar pahchan patra
Totally agree with Mr Gupta. Look at the silly concept of parivar pahchan patra (PPP) in Haryana and the casual way it was implemented. There are a number of such things in our country.
A N Prasad, IFS (Retd)
Thanks for publishing
Thank you so much for publishing my views promptly. I wish the government acts fast to avoid my country becoming Bangladesh. Highly obliged to you. Warm Regards Sir
V K Gupta

The present process for recruiting India's civil services needs urgent review. More and more recruits are now joining after repeated attempts -- a syndrome that indicates that service is unable to recruit sharp minds and the focus is on rote learning. Only about 8% of the recruits make it at first attempt.
There is a case for limiting the number of attempts, maybe, to two. This would improve the present situation where thousands of youths spend years slogging in inhospitable environment preparing for the examination and waste a good portion of their youths in unproductive pursuits when they would have been more creative and a lot happier elsewhere . Such reform would also minimise the mess the coaching industry has made of the situation.
Civil service should attract brilliant minds and the recruits should be fairly young, in their early twenties. A person getting into the service, say, after six attempts and in his early thirties, in my view, is a good misfit.
P K Mishra former Secretary Coal
In many states RERA Chairman are 1989 batch IAS officers!
This is regarding your article regarding "In many states the RERA chairpersons are from 1989 IAS batch": You have mentioned that the Chairperson at Odisha RERA is Mr. P.K.Jena. Please check the facts. Mr. Siddhant Das is the current ORERA Chairperson. Please visit the official website of ORERA at rera.odisha.gov.in.
Bimalendu Pradhan

No reform, perform, transform… The Prime Minister has been asking government agencies to reform, perform and transform, but they have only obeyed to innovate. They innovate newer methods of making life difficult for the citizens to frustrate the prime minister’s orders to make ease of living and ease of doing business with the government agencies by twisting rules not to deliver justice or lawful redressal to public grievances or reviving the old munshigiri in the digital India of today. Take the latest illogical, unproductive, costly and wasteful diktat from the RBI asking all bank customers having an account to get KYC done again. These letters have been issued blindly in bulk without caring for the exercise done only last year. The RBI has not prescribed any interval at which it has to be done. I am a central government civil pensioner. My monthly pension is credited to my account. I submit to the bank “Life Certificate” in the month of November every year. I regularly write cheques and carry out transactions. Even then the Bank has asked me to visit the branch personally with documents and photo, get KYC done, failing which they would stop transactions in my account! What an innovation of threat? Arre! RBI you could not catch one bogus account holder so far or catch swindlers robbing the banks of 15000 crores but you hold out a threat to stop transactions. Wonderful innovation. You can’t be expected to do anything better! But let me tell you that you are inviting adverse attention of the Hon’ble Supreme Court for deciding on your threat one day when some consumer challenges your diktat and seeks compensation for agony, harassment, cost of transport etc and inconvenience. Can’t you devise a more positive and productive method of KYC?
M L Gupta

The attested photostat copy of certain letter was denied by the PIO under Section 8(1)(h) of RTI Act. As the FAA upheld the reply given by the PIO, the applicant filed an appeal before the CIC. The PIO submitted that the letter sought for by the Applicant was the communication under which departmental action was sought against the Applicant and it contains the brief of the proposed disciplinary action, details of which were already revealed in the Chargesheet served to him. Upon a query from the CIC regarding the invocation of Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act, the PIO was unable to tender any justification except for reiterating that the details contained in the averred letter were already revealed in the Chargesheet. Despite being afforded with adequate opportunity during the hearing to the PIO to justify the denial as required under Section 19(5) of the RTI Act, no tenable explanation was forthcoming. The CIC noted that the information sought for by the Applicant relates to his own disciplinary case. The CIC rejected the denial of the information and directed the PIO to revisit the RTI Application and provide a reply to the Appellant incorporating the available information as sought for therein, free of cost. The CIC granted the limited liberty to the PIO to redact in consonance with Section 10 of the RTI Act, the names and identifying particulars of third parties as well as the personal information, if any, related to third parties, both of which is exempted from disclosure under Section 8(1)(g) and 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act.
Comment
The PIO must understand that he/she may be called upon to justify the invocation of the exemption for the denial of the information. To justify the denial of the information under Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act, PIO must be able explain what impediment will be caused to an investigation, apprehension or prosecution of offender by the disclosure of the averred information.
Citation:Shankar Ram Verma v. Department Of Posts, CIC/POSTS/A/2023/100589; Date of Decision: 29.04.2024
Dr Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is a RTI Consultant currently working with IIM Visakhapatnam. She has co-authored the books, RTI Right to Information - Law and Practice and PIO’s Guide to RTI. She offers consultancy on RTI matters and Third party audit. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link www.rtifoundationofindia.com