Landmark RTI Judgment by State Information Commission against Haryana Police

[dheerajjain]

Thanks to this braveheart from Gurgaon who went to the highest level to make Faridabad police share the information and because of him the Faridabad Police RTI team will be going on training on RTI Act.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp ... 043116.ece

People have right to know antecedents of those who have floated residential colonies


RTI information was sought on ex-directors of Triveni Infrastructure Limited

Hearing a case pertaining to denial of information about criminal antecedents of a developer under the Right to Information Act, 2005, by the Faridabad Police, the Haryana State Information Commission has observed that information sought is in public interest and the people have “the right to know the antecedents of colonisers who have floated residential colonies”.

Directing the authority concerned to provide the information to the appellant within a fortnight of the receipt of the order and send a compliance report by June 6, the State Information Commission further observed that the “manner in which the RTI application was processed shows a complete lack of appreciation of the provisions of the RTI Act” and directed that arrangements be made for the training of the designated State Public Information Officers (SPIOs) and First Appellate Authority (FAA) officials for effective implementation of the law.

The appellant, a Gurgaon resident, had sought eight-point information about Madhur Mittal and Sumit Mittal, ex-directors of Triveni Infrastructure Development Company Limited that has launched two residential projects in Sectors 78 and 89 of Faridabad.

Filing an application before SPIO-cum-Additional Commissioner of Police (HQ) on November 2, the appellant had sought to know how many FIRs were lodged against the two since 2005; in how many of these cases were closure reports filed; in how many cases were the accused declared untraceable and in how many cases were charge-sheets filed, besides other details.

However, the SPIO-cum-ACP (HQ) denied the information citing Section 2 (f) of the RTI Act. The FAA-cum-Deputy Commissioner of Police (HQ) also disposed of the appellant’s appeal on January 22 this year saying that his application was rejected as per the rules.

The appellant then approached the State Information Commission on February 21 and the matter was decided after hearing both parties through video conferencing.