Mrs. Sashi Prava Bindhani, Odisha Information Commissioner performed badly.

Report Card on the Performance of Odisha Information Commissions

(  From June to December, 2018)

·   While  State  Chief  Information Commissioner  disposes 104 cases  per month , Mrs. Sashi Prava Bindhani, SIC  Disposes  only 65  cases  per month. This  is equal  with  that  of  previous  Information Commissioners  like  Sri Jagadanand  who  destroyed  RTI Act  in Odisha.

·   Competency of  Sashi Prava Bindhani  in matter  of disposal of cases  is questionable.

·   Highest  number  of cases  heard and disposed  by State  Chief  Information Commissioner  in comparison  to  performance of  all  previous  Chief  Information Commissioners  during last 13  years.

·   While State  Chief  Information Commissioner  imposes  penalty on 4%  ( 29 cases) of total disposal of cases ( 733 cases) , Smt. Bindhani  has  imposed  penalty  in   two cases  only ( less  than  1% )  of   total no. of 460 cases  disposed.

·   Sri L.N.Patnaik, SIC  has  imposed penalty on around 2 % cases .

·   Penalty  amount imposed  by SCIC  is Rs. 2,76,000.00  against  only  Rs. 6000.00 penalty  imposed  by Mrs. Bindhani.

·   Citizens are  paying  Rs. 17,000.00  to  each  Information Commissioner  per  day  of hearing of  the cases.   

·   If  rate  of disposal of cases  by  present  Information Commissioners   like Mrs. Sashi Prava Bindhani  continues ( around 2400 cases are  disposed in a year)  ,  the  cases  which are  filed  in 2019  will be heard  after five years  in 2024  and disposed  in 2025. Because , 12000 cases  are  pending  in the  Commission.

·   If   present  performance  of the  Information Commissioners  continues, RTI will be redundant  in the  coming days. It will  no way help  the  citizens. Threat  to RTI  is threat  to democracy  and good governance.

Time  has  come  to think  to save RTI which  is only  law  in the  country  empowered  citizens  to access  information, fight out corruption and  fix accountability  on the  administration.

  

I. Introduction

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 has been proved  as  most empowering tool in the hand of  the common citizens  to enforce  transparency  and accountability  in the administration in India  in general and Odisha in particular.  It has been used extensively by people on various issues starting from  holding the government accountable for delivery of basic rights and entitlements to questioning the highest offices of the country, exposing  corruption and monitoring  performance of the  Government  and implementation of development  programme.  

Under the RTI Act, information commission in Odisha  has been set up with mandate  to   protect people’s fundamental right to information as well as RTI Act. They  have been bestowed  with power  to ensure  and enforce  flow of  information to the  citizens in case  of denial of  information , impose penalty  on erring PIOs  for  violating  the Act,  to  recommend  the  public authorities  for awarding  compensation  to  the  citizens for  loss, if any  they have  suffered  due to denial of  information.     Section 19(8)(b) of the RTI Act empowers information commissions to “require the public authority to compensate the complainant for any loss or other detriment suffered”. Further, under section 19(8) and section 20 of the RTI Act, information commissions are given powers to impose penalties on erring officials, while under Section 20(2), commissions are empowered to recommend disciplinary action against a PIO for “persistent” violation of one or more provisions of the Act.

 Since  last  few  years,  we  have  been  monitoring  performance  of  Odisha  Information Commission   in terms of the number of appeals and complaints registered and disposed by the ICs, the number of pending appeals and complaints, no. of days devoted  for hearing  of the case, the estimated waiting time for the disposal of an appeal, availability of annual reports , frequency of violations penalized by ICs and transparency in the functioning of ICs. 

Last  time,  we  have  released  report  Card  on Functioning of Odisha Information Commission  (From August’ 2017 to April’2018). Sashi  Prava Bindhani, SIC was  proved  as worst  performing  information commissioner  in respect of all  parameters  in comparison  to that  of other  two  Information Commissioners. https://odishasoochana.blogspot.com/2019/03/functioning-of-odisha-information.html.

This  time, RTI Application was  filed  to the PIO, office  of Odisha  Information  Commission  to get  information about  performance  of the  Commission from June to December, 2018 . On 1.3.19, the  PIO has  supplied the  correct  information following  which  report  card  has  been  prepared. Information uploaded  in website  of the Commission has also been  taken into  consideration.  Presently , Odisha  Information Commission  is  having  Sri Sunil Kumar  Mishra, State  Chief  Information Commissioner,  Sri L.N.Patnaik, State  Information Commissioner, Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani, State  Information Commissioner.

    

The key findings   about  performance  of Odisha  Information Commission is as  follows.

1.      Hearing  and Disposal  of  Complaint  and Second Appeal  cases   by  Odisha  Information

The primary responsibility of the Information Commission is  to hear  the  complaint petition and  second appeal cases and dispose  the same as quick as  possible in order  to give  justice  to the aggrieved Information-seekers.  The sooner  the cases are  disposed , the better for information –seekers. The lingering of hearing or delayed hearing  of the cases and its  disposal  by the  Commission  makes   supply of information   redundant for  the citizens.  But  presently, the  cases  heard and disposed  by the Commission are of 2015 and 2016, a 3 years old cases.  The  following  is the  details of  cases  heard and disposed   by  SCIC  and  2 SICs  from June to December, 2018.

Disposal of Complaint  and Second Appeal  cases  by Odisha Information Commission ( from June to December,2018)

Sri Sunil Kumar  Mishra, State Chief  Information Commissioner
Month and Year	Complaint  cases  heard	Complaint  cases  disposed	Second Appeal cases heard	Second Appeal cases  disposed
June, 2018	29	03	178	74
July, 2018	66	23	291	136
August , 2018	67	16	302	135
September, 2018	34	11	171	58
October, 2018	51	18	216	63
November, 2018	63	17	330	88
December, 2018	60	27	220	64
Total	370	115	1708	618
Sri L. N. Patnaik, State  Information Commissioner
June, 2018	22	7	127	39
July, 2018	40	9	250	70
August , 2018	64	13	219	52
September, 2018	28	3	172	48
October, 2018	29	2	183	38
November, 2018	44	6	187	45
December, 2018	37	8	185	50
Total	264	48	1323	342
Smt. Sashiprava Bindhani, State  Information Commissioner
June, 2018	18	6	135	61
July, 2018	25	8	285	70
August , 2018	55	57	299	49
September, 2018	21	05	255	40
October, 2018	17	02	99	40
November, 2018	28	10	221	35
December, 2018	20	06	206	71
Total	184	94	1500	366

·         Within period of  7 months , the  State  Chief Information Commissioner ( SCIC)  has  heard 2078 cases ( both complaint  and Second Appeal)  and  disposed 733  cases. In an average ,  the  SCIC  hears around 300 cases  per  month and disposes 104  cases .

·         Similarly, Sri L.N.Patnaik , SIC  has heard total no. of 1587 cases  and disposed 390  cases. In an average, he has heard 226 cases per month and disposes 55 cases per  month. 

·         Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani, SIC  has  heard 1684  cases  and disposed 460 cases   within 7  month. In an average, She hears 240  cases per  month ( 15  cases per  day)  and disposes 65 cases  per month.

2.      No. of days  devoted  for  hearing  of the  cases  by Odisha  Information Commission

Month, 2018	Sri Sunil Mishra, SCIC	Sri L.N.Patnaik, SIC	Mrs. Sashiprava Bindhani, SIC
January	18	16	16
February	17	16	16
March	11	14	12
April	19	17	20
May	20	22	19
June	11	10	10
July	19	20	21
August	20	20	18
September	10	14	17
October	13	12	09
November	18	14	15
December	13	11	12
	189	186	185

·      In an average , each  Information Commissioner  is   devoting  only 15 days for  hearing  of the cases.  Monthly salary and allowances  of each  Information Commissioner  is  Rs. 2.5 lakh  per month. It means  they  are  paid  Rs. 17,000  per  day of  hearing of the case. Rest  of the days  in a month are  holiday {Saturday  (  case  is not heard ) Sunday ,   casual leave , Govt. holiday etc.  ) .

3.      Penalty

As  per  section 20 (1) of the  RTI Act, the  Information Commission is empowered  to  impose  penalty  on erring PIO  for  denial  of  information  or  providing  false, misleading and incomplete  information  etc.  Imposition of penalty on erring PIOs is prerequisite for  better implementation of RTI Act  in the state and to enforce  accountability  on Govt. officials.  If  penalty  is not  imposed,  the PIO  will not  care RTI Act  and mindlessly respond RTI Act  which will ultimately  damage RTI Act  in long run. As per  the  information  provided   by the  office of Commission,  the performance  of   Information Commissioners   in respect  of  imposition of  penalty  is as follows.

Name  of the  Information Commission	No. of  cases  in which  penalty  imposed	Total  amount  collected
Sri Sunil  Kumar  Mishra, SCIC	29	2,76,000.00
Sri L.N.Patnaik, SIC	7	1,75,002.00
Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani, SIC	2	6,000.00

·         Out  of 733 cases  disposed  by State  Chief  Information Commissioner,  penalty  has been  imposed  on 29  cases ( 4%).

·         Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani, SIC  imposes penalty  on  two  cases only  against 460 cases  disposed ( 0.45%).

·         Sri L.N.Patnaik, SIC   has imposed  penalty  on 7  cases  against 390 cases  disposed ( 1.79%)

·         All the  3 Information Commissioners  have not  recommended  disciplinary  proceedings  against  any erring  PIOs as required  under  section 20(2)  of the RTI Act.

4.      Pendency

As  per the  information provided   by office  of Odisha  Information Commission, Total no. of 11,762 cases ( Both SA  and  Complaint  case)  is pending  in the  Commission.  If  the  present  performance  of the  Information Commissioners  in respect  of  disposal of cases are   taken into  consideration, cases  which are  filed   today ( 2019)  will be herd  in 2024.

Prepared  by

Pradip Pradhan, RTI Activist

State  Convener, Odisha soochana  Adhikar Abhijan

M-9937843482

Date-29.3.19