Provide leave details of employee, info panel tells BMC

The state information commission has directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to provide leave details and annual confidential report (ACR), service file with notings of an employee, among others. The order comes after the public information officer (PIO) cited a Supreme Court order - often termed by RTI activist as the one used to making RTI redundant - to deny information. The order instead directed the BMC to provide for information instead and is being hailed for not relating the order to the case. 

The order was given on an RTI application filed by Dadar resident Mahendra Dharod. Dharod in his application had sought details of an officer in G/North ward. The order was given by Sumit Mullick, the state chief information commissioner. 

“I had sought details because I wanted to know if any action was taken on the officer,” said Dharod. According to Dharod, the officer allowed the transfer of an illegal structure to a purchaser in his ward despite knowing that it was illegal.

He added, “I had complained about him and wanted to know the action taken. I wanted to know if he was on leave or suspended.” The public information officer refused to give him details of leaves sanctioned and the ACR and the officer who those sanctioned leaves.

“This is a very good order in the spirit and letter of the RTI Act. It has rightly ruled that the SC's order does not form a legal precedent which must be followed,” said Shailesh Gandhi, former central information commissioner.