Public Authorities To Encourage Online RTI Applications In 'Life & Liberty' Matters : CIC

The Central Information Commission has decided a complaint registered under Section 18 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (as amended from time to time and as in force) in the year 2018 against the Central Public Information Officer, University of Delhi vide its order dated 23.04.2020 . The complaint which registered on 14.08.2018 was initially listed for 30.03.2020 however due to witness of unprecedented pandemic in the country was finally heard on 22.04.2020 at 12.10 p.m. through audio conference involving the Central Information Commissioner Ms. Vanaja N. Sarna, the complainant Sh. Mohit Kumar Gupta, Advocate and respondent CPIO MS. Meenakshi Sahay, Deputy Registrar, University of Delhi. BACKGROUND The complainant, while acting in his professional capacity as a counsel for the 12 minor and 4 major girl students, belonging from different parts of the country whose admissions under sports quota were arbitrarily cancelled/withdrawn by the Principal in the capacity of Chairperson, Admissions Committee, Daulat Ram College in the year 2018, faced the issue of filing an application dated 06.08.2018 under Section 7(1) i.e. 'Life or Liberty (to be responded within 48 hours of its receipt)' of Right to Information Act, 2005 (as amended from time to time and in force) i.e. through the online portal of DOPT https://rtionline.gov.in/ to the public authority 'University of Delhi' seeking information on different counts pertaining to their cancellation of admission and issues related thereof, as the said portal did not provide the facility for the same specifically as a separate category and only allowed the RTI Application to be filed under Section 6, RTI Act, 2005 (i.e. NOT under 'Life or Liberty') per se and therefore it compelled the complainant to make a physical application which got delayed nearly by 4 precious hours, with hesitation on the part of the Diary/Dispatch clerk of University of Delhi to record the time along with date as acknowledgement of receipt of such application. That thereafter, the response as was received therein from University of Delhi whereby the entire set of information counts stood transferred to Public Information Officer, University of Delhi vide letter dated 07.08.2018, although certain points did relate to departments and branches of University of Delhi, was attempted to be challenged and appealed by filing of First Appeal to the First Appellate Authority of public authority 'University of Delhi' through email id 'cpio@admin.du.ac.in' (the official email address of Central Public Information Officer of University of Delhi as publically disclosed through suo-moto disclosures on the website www.du.ac.in as per Section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005), in accordance with Section 5(2) of the RTI Act, 2005 (i.e. Provided that where an application for information or appeal is given to a Central Assistant Public Information Officer or a State Assistant Public Information Officer, as the case may be, a period of five days shall be added in computing the period for response specified under sub‑section (1) of section 7), however as per the previous reply of the CPIO, University of Delhi in the year 2017 in response to other first appeals, the same was disapproved as a self-decided measure, in the following words: The email ID cpio@admin.du.ac.in is not for filling RTI application or First Appeal. It is, hereby, informed that the First Appeal can be filed on the link https://rtionline.gov.in, wherein the online RTI application was filed. Alternatively, it can be filed through an application addressed to First Appellate Authority with relevant details, which can be submitted by hand or sent through post. The online portal of DOPT https://rtionline.gov.in/ could not have been proceeded with since the portal would ask the applicant/appellant/complainant to wait for expiry of 30 days from the date of filing of RTI Application before filing such First Appeal, as the programming was not attuned to requests in accordance with Section 7(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005. In this regard, a representation was moved before the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India through first email dated 21.06.2017 and a reminder email dated 28.07.2017 detailing the underlying issue in good detail with the prayer to: 1. make provision for filing RTI u/s 7(1), RTI Act, 2005 [Life or Liberty] on the RTI Online Portal. 2. make provision for filing RTI First Appeal under Section 19(1), RTI Act, 2005 [i.r.o. Life or Liberty] on the RTI Online Portal. Thereafter, an application under Section 6, RTI Act, 2005 was preferred with DOPT on 06.07.2017 seeking status of the representation dated 21.06.2017 besides other points of information, in response whereof, the DOPT through letter dated 31.08.2017 informed the applicant that: "The matter has been examined and NIC has been requested to place...

Public Authorities To Encourage Online RTI Applications In 'Life & Liberty' Matters : CIC

Mohit Kumar Gupta

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