Authorities can't ask for money to give info, says CIC

Jeeva, TNN 1 July 2009, 03:21am IST

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CHENNAI: In a significant order, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has ruled that public authorities cannot demand cost of manpower and maintenance charges to reply to queries under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. The commission delivered the order last week on an appeal filed by a city-based activist, V Madhav of Porur, challenging Southern Railway's action, asking him to pay manpower and maintenance costs of computers used, to provide answers to his RTI queries.

Madhav had filed an RTI application at the Southern Railway headquarters here on February 25, 2008, seeking details about different quotas available on train tickets, including information on quotas for agents, tatkal and emergency, and the number of tickets booked under each quota on the Pandian Express from January 10 to 20, 2008.

In its reply, Southern Railway said the applicant would have to pay Rs 750 to obtain the information since
the details sought were four months old. The railways further said that the existing reservation system was dynamic and that reservation records were available only for the last 5 days, which could be generated instantly. Hence, details pertaining to the earlier period had to be accessed from the main hard disc of the computer. Thus, the applicant needed to pay the amount, considering the use of different infrastructural devices such as hard disc, MIS application, CPU power, besides maintenance of equipment and eight man hours taken to compile the details, the railways told the applicant.

In his appeal before CIC, the applicant argued that the public authority was not entitled to ask the amount as it was beyond the purview of the Act.

After hearing the case, CIC in its order said: "The Commission agrees with the contention of the applicant that the RTI Act has no provision for charging any fees towards manpower and maintenance and accordingly directs the Southern Railway to provide the information, which has already been compiled by the respondents, free of cost.''

The Commission also "advised'' the applicant not to seek voluminous information that causes disproportionate diversion of the resources of the public authority.

CIC's order has evoked a welcome response among RTI activists. "It is a very good order as this sort of demand by public authorities will ultimately dilute the RTI Act. The Central government should communicate this order to all its departments forthwith,'' said V Gopalakrishnan, a resident of K K Nagar who has filed several applications under the RTI Act.