Functioning of Odisha Information Commission- A Report Card

Functioning of Odisha Information Commission- A Report Card

(From August’ 2017 to April’2018)    

      Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani- Worst Performing Information Commissioner

Within 12 years of implementation, Right to Information Act, 2005 has been proved as most empowering law for the citizens of the country. The  common people  have used  this law extensively  starting  from accessing  information  about  their rights  and entitlements  under various welfare schemes to exposing scams and irregularities  in development projects, tracking  ATR  on  their  complaints/ grievances  submitted to the public authorities,  enforcing transparency  and accountability  in the administration. This law has been biggest weapon in the hand of the common people to fight out corruption at various levels and paved the way for generating debate for introduction of  robust grievance redessal mechanism in the state.

As per the RTI Act,  the State Information Commission is the highest adjudicating body  entrusted  with task of deciding appeals and complaints  of the information-seekers, penalising erring PIOs and recommending  disciplinary proceedings against  them for persistent violation of the RTI Act and awarding  compensation  to  the affected  citizens who got harassed  due to  denial of information by the PIOs. The Information Commissions are  having  power of Civil Court  to conduct inquiry into  any  complaints/ appeals, call  for  any reports , summon attendance of  persons and  examination of witness and documents etc.

To review the  performance of Odisha Information Commission, RTI Application was submitted to Odisha Information Commission seeking information about the following information from August’2017 to April’2018 ( 9 months).

a.      No. of complaints and appeals heard and disposed   by State Chief Information Commissioner and other two Information Commissioners (month-wise).

b.      No. of days devoted by each Information Commissioner for hearing of cases (month-wise) .

c.       No. of cases in which penalty has been imposed on PIOs by each Information Commissioner within above-mentioned time period.

d.      Total no. of cases pending in the Commission up to April’2018.

On 14.5.18, the PIO has supplied the information which are presented below.

Odisha Information Commission  is currently functioning with Sri Sunil Kumar Mishra as Chief SIC and  Sri L.N.Patnaik and Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani both being SICs.  Further, while the Chief SIC got appointed in Nov. 2016, both SICs  had got appointed more than a year and half earlier to him, i.e. in June 2015.  

1.      Appeals and Complaints  heard and disposed  by the Odisha Information Commission

As per section 19(3) of the RTI Act, if a person is  aggrieved  with the decision of  First Appellate  Authority  or could  not receive any  response from the First Appellate Authority within stipulated  time period i.e., 30 to  45 days of the receipt of the first appeal, he or she  can  file second appeal  to the Information Commission within 90 days.  Similarly, the section 18 of the RTI Act empowers the Information Commission to receive  any   type of  complaint cases in respect of  denial of  information , supply of incomplete, misleading and false information or any other matter relating to requesting or obtaining access to records under this Act.  The information about  no. of complaints and second appeals heard and disposed  by the Information  Commission  is  as follows.

Name  of  Information Commissioners	No. of  Complaints and Second Appeals heard and disposed   within 9 months ( From August’2017 to April’2018)
	Complaint cases  heard	Complaint cases  disposed	Second Appeals heard	Second appeals disposed.
Sri Sunil Kumar Mishra State Chief Information Commissioner	360	53	2003	715
Sri Laxmi Narayan Patnaik State Information Commissioner	386	84	1700	427
Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani, State Information Commissioner		31		215

                                                 (N.B.- Total SA and  Complaint cases head by Smt. Bindhani is 849)

 Findings

a.       While Sri Sunil Mishra, SCIC   hears    highest no. of 2363 cases (Second Appeal and Complaints) within 9 months,    Sri L.N.Patnaik   and Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani have heard total no. of 2086 and 849 cases respectively.

b.      In respect of  month-wise hearing of the cases by all the three Information Commissioners, It was observed that Sri Sunil Mishra hears 263 cases per month followed by Sri L.N.Patnaik (231 cases) and Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani (94 cases).

c.       In terms of disposal, Sri Sunil Mishra, SCIC disposes highest number of 768 cases  followed  by Sri L.N.Patnaik , SIC ( 511 cases )  and Smt. Bindhani ( 246 cases) , lowest  among all  three  Commissioners.

d.      The monthly-disposal rate is quite disturbing. Sashi Prava Bindhani stands as worst performer so far as disposal of the cases is concerned.  While Sri Sunil Mishra disposes 85 cases per month, Smt. Bindhani disposes only 27 cases and Sri L.N.Patnaik ‘s monthly disposal rate is just 56 . The disposal rate of the cases by Sri Sunil Mishra is 3 times more than that of Sashi Prava Bindhani. 

2.   Days devoted  for hearing of the case by the Information Commission  

The  information provided  by the PIO  shows  that  Sri Sunil Mishra, SCIC  has devoted total no. of 126 days  within 9 months and Sri L.N.Patnaik , SIC has  heard the cases  for 137 days  and Smt. Bindhani 126 days .    Sri Sunil Mishra and Smt. Bindhani have devoted each 14 days in a month for hearing of the cases.  But Sri L.N.Patnaik has spent 15 days  in each month  for hearing of the cases.

3.   Penalty imposed  on PIOs by Information Commission

As per section 20  of the RTI Act, the Information Commission is empowered  to impose penalty   ( per day Rs.250.00  upto Rs. 25,000.00 ) on  erring PIOs  for violation of RTI Act. This penalty clause is one of the most important provisions of the law which act as deterrent for PIOs  against  violating  the law. In case of denial of information with malafide intention, supply of false, misleading and incomplete information or violation of any provision of the RTI Act, the Commission is obliged  to impose penalty  on PIOs.

 Quantum of penalty imposed on PIOs  by Information Commission is as follows.

Name of  Information Commission	Total no. of cases  disposed	Total of cases in which penalty imposed	Percentage of cases  in which penalty  is imposed	Total amount
Sri Sunil Kumar Mishra State Chief Information Commissioner	768	15 ( 19 PIOs and referred PIOs penalised)	2 %	Rs.2,15,000.00
Sri Laxmi Narayan Patnaik State Information Commissioner	511	9 ( 17 PIOs and referred PIOs penalised )	Less than 2%	Rs.2,25,001.00
Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani, State Information Commissioner	246	1  ( one PIO was penalised )	Less  that 0.0001%	Rs.5,000.00

4.        Total no. of cases pending  in the Commission  by April, 2018  is 9150 cases ( both Complaint and Second Appeals) .

5.        Since 2014-15, Odisha Information Commission has not published  Annual Report  as per section 25 of the RTI Act.

Analysis

A.     As per the law, the primary function of the Commission is to hear and dispose complaint/ Second Appeal cases in order to give justice to the citizens. As soon as the cases are disposed within a reasonable time period, the complainant-citizens will get relief. The desired information will be meaningful and used in appropriate time and give genuine benefit to the citizens.  If the hearing of the cases gets delayed and lingers for years together, the affected parties will suffer. It is observed  from the  findings  of the rate of hearing and  disposal of  cases  by  Odisha Information Commission that  within period of 9 months, though  the Commission has heard 5298 cases , but  disposed  only 1525 cases . Out of total cases being heard, the Commission has disposed only 30% cases. Again these cases are of 2015 which is heard in 2017 and 2018. Many of these cases are yet to be disposed by the Commission.  As per RTI information, presently the Commission has the pendency of 9000 cases. If the present disposal rate of the Commission is taken into account, it is estimated the cases filed in 2018 will be heard in 2023 (after five years of filling of the cases).  Law will be meaningless for these people who will get information after five years. 

B.      It is observed  that  the huge backlog of the cases  is  caused due to  inefficiency  of the  Commission, lack of knowledge  and understanding  about the law  and  lack of expertise and experience  to handle the cases. In many cases, the Commission lingers the hearing of the cases  by  fixing so many dates (  time frame  fixed  for next hearing of case ranges  from 3 to 4 months) for years together.   The lingering of hearing of the cases along with fixing so many dates has frustrated the objective of the Act. It is also seen that many people are seen discouraged to file RTI applications and appeals / complaints to the Commission to get justice. The absence of the complainants/ appellants during hearing of the case has provided opportunity to Sashi Prava Bindhani  to pass arbitrary order in favour  of the  opposite  parties  without any penalty.  Out of  the  246 cases   disposed  by her, Smt. Bindhani   has  imposed penalty in one and only  case ( penalty  amount of Rs. 5000.00  imposed on Sri Narayan Mahalik, Ex-PIO, office of Tahasildar, Sadar, Cuttack , SA No. 1359/14). 

C.      Among  three Information Commissioners, Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani  is proved as most inefficient and non-performing  Commissioner  in Odisha in terms of  hearing and disposal  of the cases and  imposition of penalty.

D.     It was also observed that  the  Information Commission has imposed penalty in just 2% of the cases  disposed  by  them. Meagre  penalty imposed on PIO in miniscule of cases  has encouraged them to deny information to the information-seekers. That’s why despite implementation of RTI Act in the state, there is no progress  in terms of reduction of corruption or irregularities  in administration in the state.

E.      It is  also observed  that the  Information Commission has not  adopted any  norms regarding the number of the cases to be dealt  by the Commission within a month. From the  findings , it was  found that  while State Chief Information Commissioner  hears 263  cases  per month,  Sri L.N.Patnaik , SIC hears  231 cases  followed by Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani , SIC  ( 94 cases per month). If  this trend  continues, the Commission will take five years for disposal of  pending cases  i.e., 9100 cases.

Recommendation

a.      The Information Commission must adopt norms for hearing and disposal of the cases in every month.

b.      The Commission should not linger the hearing of the case  and dispose  the case within two to three hearing.

c.       The Commission must impose penalty  on erring PIOs  for  violating the RTI Act without showing any lenient attitude  towards them.

Report prepared by

Pradip Pradhan                                                 Srikant Pakal                      Bhawani Prasad Nanda

M-9937843482                                                   M- 9338455092                                 M- 9937105006 

15.5.18