Outstanding
Order of Odisha Information Commission
(Second
Appeal Case No.- 1306/2016)
Bhubaneswar: While disposing a
Second Appeal
petition No. 1306/2016 dt. 16.7.20, Sri .B.K. Mohaptra, State Information
Commissioner has imposed
penalty of Rs. 25,000 on PIO of College
of Engineering & Technology , Ghatikia, Bhubaneswar for
denial of information
under RTI Act and directed
authority to pay Rs. 50,000.00
as compensation to the appellant
Dr. Biswanandan Dash within one
month. This is the highest ever compensation
awarded to an appellant by
Odisha Information Commission since 2005, year of the
implementation of RTI Act in
Odisha.
1.Sri Biswanandan Das had
filed RTI Application dt. 7.1.2016 to the PIO, College
of Engineering & Technology , Ghatikia, Bhubaneswar seeking
information on 11 points in relation to
the walk-in-interviews conducted by CET on 8.7.15 and 25.12.15 for
selection and appointment of some contractual faculty members in the
department of English and Mathematics. On 5.2.16, Dr. Achyutananda Acharya, the then PIO supplied the
information and asked the appellant to deposit Rs. 10.00 towards cost
of the 5 page information. The
Appellant found the information
incomplete supplied by the PIO but
deposited Rs. 10.00 towards
cost of information. Though money was deposited in form of
Money order, the PIO did not supply
any information.
2. Then the appellant filed first appeal dt. 26.2.16 to Prof. P.K.Patra, the First Appellate Authority-cum-Principal,
CET, Bhubaneswar seeking complete information.
The First Appellate Authority
conducted hearing and passed
the order dt. 13.5.2016 affirming entitlement of the appellant to the
information such as attendance and selection of the candidates, distribution/ award of the marks and
merit list. But the PIO did not
supply any information despite order of the FAA. The FAA also did not send
copy of the order
to the appellant nor ensured
implementation of his order.
3. Being aggrieved, Sri
Das filed second
appeal dt. 6.8.2016 before
Odisha Information Commission seeking
complete information,
penalty on the PIO for denial
of information under section
20(1) of the RTI Act with prayer for Rs. 2 lakh
compensation for the loss
suffered by him under section 19(8)(b)
of the RTI Act.
4. The Commission
registered the case as Second
Appeal No. 1306/2016 and issued
notice to the PIO and First
Appellate Authority of
CET, Bhubaneswar seeking reply and status report
in relation to Second Appeal
petition. In order to comply the
notice dt. 6.4.2018 issued by the Commission, the
PIO and First Appellate
Authority vide letter No. 2552 dt. 1.8.2017 and letter No. 1934 dt. 25.6.2018 provided
rest of the authenticated information free of cost.
5. The Commission conducted
several hearing in 2019 and
2020. During hearing, the
Commission wanted to know from the PIO what prevented him from supplying the information at that time
which was supplied to the
appellant in order
to comply the notice of the
Commission. The PIO could not give any satisfactory response. The Commission
also observed that
despite order of the First Appellate Authority, the PIO
did not supply any information.
6. The Commission arrives at
the findings that
Dr. Achyutananda Acharya, the
then PIO, CET, without any reasonable
clause delayed the
furnishing of the available information
to the appellant and deliberately
caused obstruction in the access of information to the appellant. He is
therefore, held liable to penalty
under section 20(1) of RTI Act.
Taking note of the extent of delay and
the conduct of Dr. Acharya , the
PIO , the Commission imposed penalty
of Rs. 25,000.00 on him.
7. With regard
to prayer for the
compensation by the appellant,
the Commission observed “ had the sought information been provided to the appellant in due time or in accordance with
the provisions of the Act, the
same could have
been used and
utilized by him in his desired
way. His contention thus merits
consideration that due
to the obstruction
in access to information to him
deterred his purpose.” The
Commission considers it to be fit case to
award the compensation
of Rs. 50,000 in favour of the
appellant to be paid by CET under section 19(8)(b) of the RTI Act.
8. The Commission directed the PIO to pay the
amount of penalty Rs. 25,000.00 within one
month of the receipt of the
order. The Commission also directed the
Public Authority , i.e., the
College of Engineering and Technology , Bhubaneswar to pay
compensation amount of Rs. 50,000
to the appellant within one month
from the date of the receipt of the
order.
Prepared by Pradip Pradhan
M-9937843482
Date- 25.7.20
138/17
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