Order of FAA Illegal if Appellant not heard
13 November 2014
THROUGH E-MAIL
Chief Secretary to Government Punjab
Punjab Civil Secretariat, Chandigarh
Chief Secretary to Government Haryana
Haryana Civil Secretariat, Chandigarh
S.B. Deepak Kumar, IAS, Special Secretary Home,
UT Secretariat, Sector 9, Chandigarh
This Mail in original is also sent through e-mail to:
- Chief Justice, Hon'ble Punjab & Haryana High Court at Chandigarh being a "Competent Authority" under the Right to Information Act 2005
- Hon'ble Central Chief Information Commission; New Delhi
- All Hon'ble Chief Information Commissioners of all State Information Commissions in India;
- Hon'ble Secretary, Department of Personnel & Training GOI New Delhi; being the "Nodal Agency" controlling the Right to Information Act 2005
- All Chief Secretaries of all State being an "Appropriate Government" under the Right to Information Act 2005
Landmark decision
Central Information Commission:
Order of First Appellate Authority Illegal
if Appellant not heard
Hon'ble Sirs,
Hearing the appeal of Mr. R.K. Jain against the Department of Legal Affairs Government of India, in Appeal Case CIC/SA/A/2014/000254 decided on 12 November 2014 (copy attached herewith as Annexure-A), Central Information Commissioner Prof. Madabhushi Sridhar Acharyulu in Para-14 of his of order dated 12 November 2014 has delivered a momentous decision.
Denying the Appellant a chance of presenting his case and by raising entirely a new defense which was never claimed, is a breach of natural justice.
Commission has gone a length beyond and finds "it deserves action though the concerned officer retired from service" and recommends "Public Authority to initiate disciplinary action against the concerned FAO for acting totally against law and the provisions of the RTI Act in this case."
This is s landmark Decision of the Central Information Commission.
The Constitutional Guarantee of the "Equality before Law" notwithstanding, under the identical provisions of the identical Central law, can a citizen 'have' a legal right in one State and 'not have' such a right in another part of the country? And if the identical provisions of the identical Central Acts are interpreted, administered and applied in different and inconsistent manner in different parts of the country, will certainly create anomalies of conflicting judgments all across the country and create an evil of 'want of uniformity'. It not only impairs the quality of the substantive or procedural law but also causes serious inconveniences to the citizens in general, and for those who are entrusted with the function of adjudicating on question of law, must spend considerable time in choosing between two and more possible views on a subject which fall to be considered before them......
The complete text of this mail may please be read by downloading the attachments to this mail and printing for further processing it)
These recommendation would have, otherwise, been implemented suo-motu by each Information Commission and in the Public Authority own their own in the appeal mechanism under section 19 of the Right to Information Act 2005, but these were given a go-bye for obvious reasons.
It is hoped that the Appropriate Government, Competent Authorities, Information Commissions, as well as Public Authorities under the Right to Information Act 2005 shall honour and implement this decision of the Central Information Commission, in toto, avoiding judicial conflicts, and the other decisions of this magnitude of others commissions as well, pan India; and a suitable directions under Section 25(5) shall be issued threating this communication as a petition.
The receipt of this communication may please be acknowledged. While replying, the number and date of this communication may please be invariably mentioned. If no acknowledgement is received, I intend to file RTI Application after a month. to know the:
(i) status of implementation of these recommendations; &
(ii) status of action taken on this communication and its latest status,
This communication is sent through electronic media and as such does not warrant any signature.
Thanking you & with Warm Regards,
Very cordially yours,
Surendera M. Bhanot
President RTIFED[1]
Enclosure: as stated please.
A copy is also sent to all RTI Activists and RTI NGOs as well as Human NGOs for making similar plea to concerned authorities in their state/area of operation.
[1]RTIFED (formerly known as RTI Activists' Federation and conceived and founded by the legendary Advocate H.C. Arora) is a body looking after the rights of the RTI Applicants and keeping an eye over the happenings of the RTI related matters in various states.
Attachment(s) from RTIFED - Surendera M. Bhanot | View attachments on the web
2 of 2 File(s)
Posted by: "RTIFED - Surendera M. Bhanot" <rtifed@gmail.com>
| Reply via web post | • | Reply to sender | • | Reply to group | • | Start a New Topic | • | Messages in this topic (1) |
No comments:
Post a Comment