New Delhi, July 16
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has pulled up the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Secretariat for its “careless” disposal of a citizen’s application under the Right to Information Act.
In a strong indictment of the country’s First Citizen’s Secretariat, the commission felt that such action was unbecoming in an office as august as the highest in the land and needed to be remedied.
The applicant, Mahendra Gaur, had submitted an application to the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Secretariat on March 1 this year seeking to know the status of the complaint he had made to the President against the then chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation.
However, it was alleged that Ashish Kalia, Public Information Officer (PIO) of the President’s Secretariat, refused to accept Gaur's application and instead directed that he approach the IOC directly for redressal of his grievance.
Following this, Gaur moved the CIC seeking a direction to the President's Secretariat to furnish him the required information.
The commission held that under Section 6 (3) of the RTI, the public authority to which the application is made, shall transfer the application or such part which may be appropriate to that other public authority, which either holds the information or is more closely connected with the subject matter of the application.—PTI
