Rs 30 fine for mental torture

After slapping Rs 1 fines a while ago, state information commissioner directed appellate authority to pay RTI applicant Rs 30 to redress mental and financial losses he incurred

In another demonstration of its absurd sense of justice that information seekers don't quite get, a state information commission has fined the appellate authority Rs 30.
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The penalty is meant to remedy the 'mental torture and the stationery expenses' an RTI applicant incurred, while seeking information and being ignored.


RTI activist Ravindra Raghuvanshi had sought information on hoardings in the jurisdiction of Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation

Following MiD DAY's report that two erring information officials were fined Re 1 for having delayed information to RTI applicants ('Babus fined Re 1 for blocking information', December 8, 2010), another RTI applicant wrote to MiD DAY saying that Information Commissioner Navin Kumar had fined the First Appellate Authority 30 times the fine he had slapped last time as mental and financial compensation to the applicant.

Given that the penalty is a considerable jump, two months after Kumar directed the Appellate Authority to pay RTI activist Ravindra Raghuvanshi, he is yet to get the Rs 30. The Information Commissioner also directed that the fine amount could be drawn from the state treasury.

"If the officer has to be fined, why not draw the amount from his own pocket instead of from the treasury, which is taxpayers' money. Besides, why have they fined this small amount, which, by the way I am yet to receive," said Raghuvanshi.

Penalty not enough

Raghuvanshi, who had sought information on hoardings in the jurisdiction of Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation (MBC), finds the Information Commission's approach apathetic, especially because the fine imposed doesn't really recompense 'the mental torture and stationery expenses' he actually incurred.

Raghuvanshi had first approached the public information officer (PIO) of MBC for the information.

On receiving an unsatisfactory and incomplete reply, he appealed to the First Appellate Authority, in this case the Deputy Municipal Commissio-ner of MBC, Vijay Patil, on June 12, which in the records of the appellate authority is mentioned as August 20.

However, when the First Appellate Authority did not respond, he approached the Information Commission, who passed an order for the penalty on October 16.

The Other Side

Konkan Information Commissioner Navin Kumar, by his own admission the only official to have imposed penalty in such a manner, said, "I am following a system and in that if the first appellate officer does not hear at all, there is no provision to fine the first appellate authority.
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In case somebody then appeals to us, we tell the First Appellate Authority to at least hear the matter first.

It is not a fine. The funds of the department are being used to provide a minimum compensation to the RTI applicant.

It is just a token amount meant for the purpose of deterrence. The applicant is definitely liable to get the money."u00a0

Fair Breakup?
Of the Rs 30 fine, Rs 10 is supposed to compensate for the applicant's mental torture, and Rs 20 for the stamp and stationery expenses he incurred.