State Information Commission directs police dept to upload licence and other details by October-end.
The State Information Commission (SIC) in a landmark order has asked all details of private security agencies with licenses and their enquiry reports be put online. The online disclosure will include the name of the security agency, duration of their license, names of the guards and enquiry reports. The order that was passed by State Information Commissioner Ajit Kumar Jain(Brihanmumbai) bench on September 29. It allows all access to the licensed security agency with the click of a button.
Private Security Agencies have been created to protect people but in the past few months several simultaneous incidences have made Mumbaikars rethink about the safety standards of agencies. Mumbai lawyer Pallavi Purkhayasta’s case raised issues of safety from the very people who are supposed to have provided it. The building guard Sajjad Mogul, who was convicted of her murder, and who has now jumped parole had no police verification.
Security issue from the guards had also become questionable when actor Shah Rukh Khan’s guard shot one of his colleagues on duty. The order was passed after an applicant filed a second appeal stating that he was not allowed information of the private security in his building premises. The applicants in this case were T Joseph George and Filomena George. In their application, under The Private Security Agencies Regulation Act 2005, they had sought details of M/s Santosh Carewell Services Private Limited that provides security in their society. The applicants wanted to know from the police if the agency had a valid licence.
The PIO stated in the first appeal information was provided and for other information in the same application the information seeker would have to approach another department in the Commissioner’s office. During the second appeal, the commission observed that information provided should actually be a part of the ‘suo moto’ disclosure as per section 4 (1) (b) of the RTI Act. Thus it should be put online. It asked the Assistant Commissioner of Police’s office which holds this information for licenses for private security agencies, to be put online, as per The Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act 2005. The commission also directed that the compliance of the order should be reported to the commission by October end
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