JAMMU, Mar 19: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked several Public Authorities in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to ensure strict compliance to the time-frame fixed for furnishing replies to the applications under the Right to Information Act, 2005. Moreover, it has issued show-cause notice to a Block Development Officer (BDO) and cautioned other officers for casual approach in this regard.Section 7 of the Right to Information Act, which deals with disposal of request, states: “The Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, on receipt of a request under Section 6 shall, as expeditiously as possible, and in any case within 30 days of the receipt of the request, either provide the information on payment of such fee as may be prescribed or reject the request for any of the reasons specified in Sections 8 and 9”.Likewise, Section 20, which pertains to penalties, read: “Where the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, at the time of deciding any complaint or appeal is of the opinion that the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer has, without any reasonable cause, refused to receive an application for information or has not furnished information within the time specified under Section 7, shall impose a penalty which shall not exceed Rs 25,000”.The Central Information Commission, which dealing with several Second Appeals filed against the Public Authorities of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, has noticed non-compliance to the timeline fixed under the RTI Act. Accordingly, the Chief Information Commissioner Y K Sinha has asked the Public Authorities to furnish replies to the applications filed under the transparency law within the specified time limit so as to achieve the objective behind the law.
