Functioning of Odisha Information
Commission- A Report Card
(From August’ 2017 to April’2018)
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
