Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 4: Taking serious note of the non-compliance of the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act regarding mandatory disclosure of information by the public authorities, the State Information Commission has asked the Chief Secretary to ensure immediate compliance by all the departments failing which it will recommend disciplinary action against such public authorities.
In a communiqué addressed to the Special Secretary to the Chief Secretary by Gazanfar Ali, Secretary, State Information Commission, it has been mentioned that the Commission, while reviewing the status of implementation of Section 4 of the J&K RTI Act, 2009 by the public authorities in the State, has observed that overall compliance with the provisions of Section 4(1) (b) of the Act is far from satisfactory.
While drawing the attention of the Chief Secretary towards the Commission Order No.SIC-J/15/2009-II dated April 5, 2012, the communiqué said, “the General Administration Department should have initiated suitable necessary action for ensuring compliance of the statutory requirement by the public authorities”, adding “in case of continuous non-compliance the Commission may be compelled to nominate few public authorities against whom the Chief Secretary will have to consider initiation of disciplinary action as provided under the Act”.
“The Commission may also consider whether action under Ranbir Penal Code may be feasible to be initiated against the erring public authorities”, the communiqué said, adding “however, the Commission is of the firm opinion that Chief Secretary will ensure that the public authorities will immediately make a suo-moto disclosure as provided under Section 4(1) (b) in their website and also take necessary steps for digitization of records as provided under Section 4(1)(a)”.
The Commission has observed that while there has been some positive response from a number of administrative departments and field departments including Governor’s Secretariat and Chief Minister’s Secretariat, GAD etc for carrying out mandate of suo-moto disclosure of information, there are still many departments/public authorities which have not fully met the requirement of law.
“Section 4 is soul and spirit of the Act mandating all the public authorities to prepare and host on website the information as per 17 manuals set out under Clause (b) of Sub-Section (1) of Section 4”, the Commission said, adding “this was required to be done within 120 days of the commencement of the Act, which is in operation in the State for more than 4 years now. Further delay in fulfilling the obligations of the Act on this account only adds to violation of the law”.
The Commission further observed, “with people’s awareness increasing and RTI users showing an upward swing over past two years, citizens’ demand for 100% compliance with mandatory dissemination of information by the public authorities gets much more pronounced and shrilled”, adding “the Government’s failure to honour statutory provisions of Section 4 is giving an impression that SIC is soft against the public authorities”.
Suggesting that responsibility for ensuring compliance in this regard by the HoDs must be given to the respective Administrative Departments with specific task of regular monitoring of action taken by their HoDs in a time bound manner, the Commission said that the Administrative Departments which themselves have not done the same in respect of their own departments so far have to make special efforts on urgent basis to lead and inspire their subordinate departments for full implementation of Section 4 of the Act.
The Commission has asked the Chief Secretary to ensure compliance of mandatory provisions by the public authorities and submit feed-back.
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