Right to Information Act – No Passing the Buck please
Government is all about passing the buck – Sub-sections (4) and (5) of section 5 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 provide that a Public Information Officer ( PIO ) may seek the assistance of any other officer for proper discharge of his/her duties. The officer, whose assistance is so sought, shall render all assistance to the PIO and shall be treated as a PIO for the purpose of contravention of the provisions of the Act.
It has been brought to the notice of DOPT that some PIOs , using the above provision of the Act, transfer the RTI applications received by them to other officers and direct them to send information to the applicants as deemed PIO . Thus, they use the above referred provision to designate other officers as PIO .
The DOPT clarifies that “The Act enables the PIO to seek assistance of any other officer to enable him to provide information to the information seeker, but it does not give him authority to designate any other officer as PIO and direct him to send reply to the applicant. The import of sub-section (5) of section 5 is that, if the officer whose assistance is sought by the PIO , does not render necessary help to him, the Information Commission may impose penalty on such officer or recommend disciplinary action against him the same way as the Commission may impose penalty on or recommend disciplinary action against the PIO .”