October 20, 2018:

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has imposed a penalty of ₹5,000 on the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) for non-compliance with the Right to Information Act (RTI Act), failure to attend hearings before the CIC, and "utter disregard for law."

Order was passed by the CIC on October 9 in a petition filed by Shashi that seeked information with respect to her enrollment request & details of file notings & the resolutions relating to the increment of enrollment fee.

She had made an RTI application in January 2017 seeking information regarding whether the BCD received her request application of December 2016.

She had also sought certified copies of file notings, letters communicated, and the decision taken with respect to her request application, the current status of her application, copy of resolutions & file notings in respect of fixation of fees for enrollment under different categories, etc.

The information though was denied to her. She had filed the second appeal before the CIC in June 2017.

During the course of the hearing, the counsel for the appellant had submitted that the website of the Bar Council of Delhi does not contain the basic information/link of “Right to Information” viz. name of CPIO, First Appellate Authority (FAA), etc.

In an order passed on April 13 this year, the CIC had directed CPIO of Bar Council of Delhi to respond to the applicant’s RTI request. It had also sought a report from the CPIO on non-compliance with regard to the suo motu disclosure of details on the website as per Section 4 of the RTI Act.

CIC noted that the CPIO had failed to honour his obligations under the RTI Act by repeatedly making excuses for the delay in giving the information. The CIC also noted that the CPIO was absent for the hearings which happened in May 2018, September 2018 & October 2018.

The CIC also observed that though the hearing was scheduled one after another, giving ample opportunity to the respondent to present his case, he did not fulfill his legal obligation of timely supplying the information to the appellant.

This lack of responsibility from the respondent authority reflects his utter disregard for the law.

Therefore CIC concluded that this is a fit case for imposition of penalty.

Thus CIC proceeded to impose penalty of ₹5,000 on the CPIO of Bar Council of Delhi and also directed him to provide information sought by the applicant.

“The respondent is directed to take action as per paras 5, 6, 8 and 9 above. Further, penalty of ₹5,000/- is imposed on the CPIO, BCD. The amount of ₹5,000/- shall be deducted by the Public Authority from the salary of the CPIO by way of demand draft drawn in favour of “PAO, CAT”, New Delhi in 2 equal monthly instalments.”

CIC has further sought a report from the CPIO regarding the updation of the website as per the RTI Act.

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