Why SDMC not pay a compensation of Rs 50000 to Scope comp: CIC

The CIC has issued a show cause notice to the South Delhi Municipal Corporation on why it should not pay a token compensation of Rs 50,000 to the Scope Complex for allegedly "usurping" free parking and collecting parking charges.
The Scope Complex under the Ministry of Urban Development at Lodhi Road houses offices of a number of public sector undertaking offices such as the MMTC, NTPC, IOCL, CIL, ONGC and ITDC.
In close proximity, it has offices of the CBI and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
An RTI applicant Om Prakash Khorwal has approached the SDMC claiming that the civic authority was "unauthorisedly" charging parking fee for the area which was for free parking for the staff of the Scope Complex and government offices around it.

According to him, the employees were parking their vehicles free of charge here upto 2012. However, the SDMC allotted this area to a contractor and that parking charges were being recovered from the employeeswho started collecting parking charges from the employees.
Khorwal, who works in the Scope Complex, wanted a copy of records perataining to transfer of parking space to the SDMC and the authority letter allowing the civic body to collect parking charges.

The SDMC said it has received Rs 5.86 lakh every month since July 2015 but refused to give details before that saying information was not available.

During the hearing, the petitioner alleged the "SDMC has unlawfully encroached upon and usurped the right to charge parking fee" for the area which was not under its control.
He said the ownership of the whole area, in and around the Scope Complex, was stated to be vested in the urban development ministry and the Central Public Works Department.
"While it has been brought on record that the Commissioner, the SDMC was already made aware of the instance of unauthorised levy of parking charges way back in 2013, the SDMC seemingly did not take remedial steps. It is, therefore, apparent that SDMC made financial gains by taxing the public unauthorisedly," Information Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad said.

Azad said the SDMC appeared to have unauthorisedly outsourced the rights to levy parking charges to a third party without having the authority to do so.
"The act resulted in generation of revenue in crores of rupees as undue benefit to the SDMC. The same does not seem to be an oversight but is nothing short of the civic bodys obduracy against all reasons and norms," he said.
Azad said the inaction on part of the SDMC to furnish information despite the lodging of present the RTI application highlighting the apparent excessive use of authority, could not be countenanced.
He said the petitioner and hundreds alike suffered avoidable financial detriment on account of denial of information coupled with the inaction of the SDMC.

Since the filing of the present RTI application, the SDMC has derived benefit of more than Rs 50 lakh, he noted.
"The amount so generated to the credit of the SDMC has a direct nexus with the denial of information in the present case....The appellant and the class of aggrieved persons stood to lose more than the said amount in the time period for which the information was kept under wraps," he said.
Azad issued a show cause notice to the SDMC as to why a token compensation amount of Rs 50,000 may not be recovered from it and credited to the Scope complex.

"The amount so recovered may be utilised by the Scope Complex for installing appropriate infrastructure and other facilities for free parking of vehicles by Scope employees and visitors," he said.