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Swastik Upadhyay (President)     14 January 2022

Rti query

I filed an RTI in the Department of Expenditure asking them regarding funds which they gave to Assam dept in a specific period.

They dispose of the matter saying "

Reply :- PFC-I & PFC-II Division, Department of Expenditure have no information to furnish in the matter."
 
 
Please guide what to do next


Learning

 5 Replies

kavksatyanarayana (subregistrar/supdt.(retired))     14 January 2022

The information asked by you is not involved public interest at large and it is between the Government concerned and the department concerned.  Hence rejected is correct.

Swastik Upadhyay (President)     14 January 2022

Can u plz guide how shall I ask them so that I get the proper answer 

Dr J C Vashista (Advocate)     15 January 2022

File an appeal to First Appellate Authority of the department under the provisions of Section 19 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 if the information is not provided to the satisfaction of applicant.

However, what is PFC I & PFC II division of the department and how they are related to the information sought / query ?

G.L.N. Prasad (Retired employee.)     15 January 2022

I am afraid that you have not addressed the application to the real custodian of information and the application might have lacked clarity.

The application has to be made to the custodian of that information, and that information should be available in the material form with that authority.

Even if that information is not available, the PIO has to transfer the RTI Application to the Custodian of the information under Sec. 6 (3) 

So go for the first appeal as follows:

First Appeal dt.15th Jan, 2022 under RTI Act

Before: First Appellate Authority,..................

Against: CPIO, Dept of. Expenditure............

Appellant:.........................

Brief facts: Applicant has solicited information vide his application dt.............and the 

Grounds for Appeal:  The rejection is legally improper as CPIO is bound to transfer the application to that custodian of that information's CPIO under Sec. 6 (3).

Prayer: Appellant prays for directions to CPIO for transfer of the rti application under Sec. 6 (3)

Appellant.

____________________________

with due apologies to Shri KVKS that proposition that rejection is correct is unknown in RTI Act.

The Govt is accountable to the public.  Accountability and transparency are the objectives of RTI Act.

"larger public interest" is an exemption to all exemptions stated in Sec. 8 (1).  That means even when information is exempted if there is a larger public interest, information must be provided overlooking all the exemptions

The full bench CIC decided that 'no larger public interest" can never be the reason for the denial of information.  the decision is available with more explanation in CIC website-Full bench decisions..

Archana Pandey   15 January 2022

It is advised to go for the next step to escalate the matter. For the next step, you should file a First Appeal addressed to the First Appellate Authority (FAA) (Section 19 of the RTI Act,2005). Only then, you will get clarity in answer. Although, PFC Stands for Power Finance Corporation, but I am not sure how it relates to this query so better to file first appeal as already mentioned.

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