Seeking fee for photocopying after a delay of 30 days

The appellant sought the GST Registration details of all the parties/ individuals/ companies/ firms who have participated in a particular tender of SAIL, the date and time of reverse auction conducted for the said tender and other related information. The PIO did not provide any information initially and later sent a reply seeking photocopying charges for providing 125 pages. The PIO submitted that after the CIC notice, he coordinated with the custodian and a reply was received on 4 points and the reply for the remaining 2 points was awaited. The CIC directed the PIO to send a revised reply to the appellant on all the points and send the complete documents containing 125 pages free of cost alongwith the point-wise reply, after taking assistance from the custodian u/s 5(4) of the RTI Act.

Comments

The PIO was lucky to have escaped without any show cause notice for imposition of penalty as asking for photocopying charges after a lapse of 30 days is not maintainable as per the RTI Act.

Citation: Avishek Kumar v. SAIL Collieries Division, File No. CIC/SAIL1/A/2021/135948, Date of Decision: 18/11/2022

Dr Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is a RTI Consultant currently working with IIM Visakhapatnam. She has co-authored the books, RTI Right to Information - Law and Practice and PIO’s Guide to RTI. She offers consultancy on RTI matters and Third party audit. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link www.rtifoundationofindia.com