Registrar fined for violation of RTI Act in Gujarat

Registrar and Public Information Officer (PIO) of the Saurashtra University has been fined Rs25,000 under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by the State Information Commission for violation of the Act.

Pareshbhai Sagathia, a resident of Rajkot filed an RTI application and asked various questions regarding the qualification of the Registrar, Gajendra Jani and Controller of Examination, Jagdish Mamtora. He had also sought reasons behind the resignation of the heads of two departments and the details of the benefit of the California tour by the University team. However the Registrar did not respond to the application saying they had not received any.

Looking at the evidences provided by the applicant, the Chief Information Commissioner, N Das,observed that even though the application was made through a registered post, the university had falsely denied receiving it. During the proceedings the university accepted the fact that they had received the application but the registrar argued that the applicant had asked questions and not information, so no information could be provided.

However, the commission noted during the hearing that there were hardly two to three questions out of 11 to which information could not be provided. After the commission's intervention the university sent some information to the applicant but after long a delay. The commission observed, “The substantive issue is that the PIO has not furnished any reply or information in response to the application  within 30 days from the date of receipt.

The explanation given by the respondent for the delay did not satisfy the commission. Therefore, the respondent has failed to act reasonably to the application of the complainant and thus the commission holds the respondent responsible for the inordinate delay in providing the information.”