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
