The Central Information Commission has slapped the maximum penalty under RTI Act on an official of national capital's leading medical facility InstituteofHumanBehaviourandAlliedSciences for not following its directives.
The Central Public Information Officer claimed that he intimated the Commission about their intention to challenge the order of the Commission through a letter dated September 10, 2015 but they had delayed for more than 30 days beyond the 15-days time, Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said.
The case relates to non-compliance of CIC directives issued on July 14, 2015.
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"This is a clear case of dishonoring the order of the Commission. They should have either sought extension of time for furnishing the information or approached Delhi High Court within15days.No such action was taken till September 10, 2015. They did not even inform the appellant as to whether they are going to provide information till today," he said.
CPIO SK Singh had failed to submit copy of writ petition and also did not put any interim order, if any, issued by the High Court, Acharyulu pointed out.
"Intheabsenceofinterimorderfromthe High Court, the order of the Information Commission stands. The order of the Commission is not complied with till today. According to Section 19(7), the decision oftheInformationCommission shallbebinding," he said, slapping the maximum penalty of Rs 25,000 on the CPIO of IHBAS.
