Who is deemed PIO or referred PIO under RTI Act

 

Who is deemed PIO or referred PIO under Section 5(5) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005

 

  The Right to Information Act casts an obligation/ responsibility on the designated Public Information Officer (PIO) to deal with RTI Application received from the requestor and provide Information to the applicant or reject the application for any of the reasons specified under Section 8 or 9 of the Act.

 

Section 5(4) provides that the PIO is required to seek the assistance of any other officer to enable him to give Information to the information seeker and the other officer dealing with the file/ records containing relevant Information is duty bound to render reasonable assistance to the PIO. Section 5(5) categorically states that if the officer whose assistance is sought by the PIO, or does not render required assistance/ help as per Section 5(4), as sought by the PIO, the Information Commission may impose penalty or recommend appropriate disciplinary action (while deciding the  Complaint or Second Appeal) in the same manner it could have imposed penalty or recommended disciplinary action against the Public Information Officer(PIO).

 

For practical purposes, the deemed PIO or referred PIO shall be treated as PIO.

 

 In this connection, Office Memorandum  No. 1/14-2008—IR Dated 28th July, 2008

Of Government of India , Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions: Department of Personnel and Training On the Subject:-- Clarification regarding Sub-sections (4) and (5) of the Right to Information Act,  2005 provide that a Public Information Officer(PIO) may seek the assistance of any other officer for proper discharge of his/her duties. The officer.  whose assistance is sought, shall render all  assistance to the PIO and shall be treated as PIO for the purposes of any contravention of the provisions of the Act. It has been brought to the notice of this Department that some PIOs using the provisions of this Act, transfer the RTI Application received by them to other officers and direct them to send information to the applicants as deemed PIO. Thus, they use the above referred provision to designate other officers as PIO. 

 

  2. According to the Act, it is the responsibility of the Officer who is designated as the PIO by the Public Authority to provide information to the applicant or reject the application for any reasons specified in Sections 8 and 9 of the Act. The Act enables the PIO to seek assistance of any other officer to enable him to provide  information to the information seeker, but it does not give him authority to designate other officer as PIO and direct him to send  reply to the applicant. The import of Sub-section (5) of Section 5 is that, if the officer whose assistance is sought by the PIO, does not render necessary help to him(designated PIO), the Information Commission may impose penalty on such officer or recommend disciplinary action against him in the same way as the Commission may impose penalty on or recommend disciplinary action against the PIO.

 

3. Contents of this OM may be brought to the notice of all concerned.

 

Sd/- (K. G. Verma)

Director 

 

 N.B. :-- The following important points are required to be remembered by the Public Information Officers(PIOs),---

 

1.   As per the above DOPT Office Memorandum,  PIO cannot direct other officer to give Information to the information seeker. As per Section 5(3), the PIO shall deal with the RTI Application and give Information to the citizens seeking information. 

 

2.   The other officers dealing with the relevant information are duty bound to render reasonable assistance and give relevant files /eecords to PIO required for giving information to RTI Applicant.

 

The RTI Act mandates that only the designated PIO shall deal with the RTI Application and give Information to RTI Applicant. It is not permissible under the Act, that neither the Assistant Public Information Officers(APIOs) / Deemed or Referred PIOS/ or any other officer shall give information to the information seekers.