Duties & Obligations of a Public Information Officer

Duties of a Public Information Officer

The word public authority is frequented in numerous publications. Who or what is this public authority? The simplest to way to understand it may be by glancing at the duties and scope of it. The public authority is given the responsibility of documenting and maintaining the basic structure of the organisation which may include details such as organisation design, list of employees, various procedures to be followed for different operations, rules and regulations to be followed, etc. It also enumerates policy formulation and its implement. Files the minutes of the different meetings and discussions of boards, councils, committees. Public authority prepares statements of employee’s and director’s compensation. Gives a detail account of the annual budget allocation along with subsidies and concessions received. All these details are by rule the responsibility of the public authority to consolidate and present in electronic form. The publications are updated on a yearly basis.

Second important office to understand is that of the Public Information Officer ( PIO ). It is the PIO who deals with requests from persons who seek information in the prescribed manner. The PIO shall either respond to the request expeditiously within a maximum of 30 days from the date of payment or reject the request for any of the reasons specified in section 8 and 9. In cases involving the life or liberty of a person, the PIO is deemed to respond within 48 hours of the request. If however the PIO does not respond within the stipulated time the request is considered to be rejected, in case of which the PIO must communicate with the requester the reasons for the same along with details regarding the appellate authority and timeframe within which he should act upon. The PIO provides the information in the format sort. In case the information is beyond his subject matter, the PIO shall transfer the case to the concerned authority within 5 days or may seek assistance of another officer. In matters where only partial access to information requested is granted, the PIO must provide the information only after severance of the record exempted from disclosure and communicate reason for partial access, designation of the granting or prohibiting authority and the revised fee. In cases dealing with information involving third party, the PIO shall intimate the concerned in written form within 5 days from the receipt of the request, at the same time accommodating his representation by 10 days of notice.

Grounds for Appeal & Rejection of RTIs

Grounds for Appeal & Rejection

The right to information is meant to empower the people with specific and useful information which helps them increase the level of accountability in the administrative system. But is there any scope for appeal if an applicant is not satisfied with the reply provided or if the answer is not the closure the applicant is looking for? Here’s more on that.

1. If an applicant is not supplied information within the prescribed time of thirty days or 48 hours, as the case may be, or is not satisfied with the information furnished to him, he may prefer an appeal to the first appellate authority who is an officer senior in rank to the Public Information Officer. Such an appeal should be filed within a period of thirty days from the date on which the limit of 30 days of supply of information is expired or from the date on which the information or decision of the Public Information Officer is received. The appellate authority of the public authority shall dispose of the appeal within a period of thirty days or in exceptional cases within 45 days of the receipt of the appeal.

2. If the first appellate authority fails to pass an order on the appeal within the prescribed period or if the appellant is not satisfied with the order of the first appellate authority, he may prefer a second appeal with the Central Information Commission within ninety days from the date on which the decision should have been made by the first appellate authority or was actually received by the appellant.

Certain intelligence and security organisations specified in the Second Schedule, are exempted from providing information excepting the information pertaining to the allegations of corruption and human rights violations.

The List of 22 exempted organizations is given below:

• Intelligence Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs
• Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Ministry of Finance
• Central Economic Intelligence Bureau, Ministry of Finance
• Directorate of Enforcement, Ministry of Finance
• Narcotics Control Bureau
• Aviation Research Centre
• Special Frontier Force
• Border Security Force, Ministry of Home Affairs
• Central Reserve Police Force, Ministry of Home Affairs
• Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Ministry of Home Affairs
• Central Industrial Security Force, Ministry of Home Affairs
• National Security Guard, Ministry of Home Affairs
• Research & Analysis Wing of The Cabinet Secretariat
• Assam Rifles, Ministry of Home Affairs
• Sashastra Seema Bal, Ministry of Home Affairs
• Special Protection Group
• Defence Research and Development Organisation, Ministry of Defence
• Border Road Development Organisation
• Financial Intelligence Unit, India
• Directorate General Income Tax (Investigation)
• National Technical Research Organisation
• National Security Council Secretariat

Grounds of Rejection of an RTI

Grounds of Rejection

It is imperative to know the grounds on which an RTI can be rejected.  The RTI Act lays down the grounds on which and RTI can be rejected under Section 8(1), Section 9, Section 11 and Section 24. 

An Application can be rejected if it is incomplete in any respect.

Section 8(1)

Under Section 8(1), an application can be rejected in case of disclosure of information which:

a) would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence;

b) has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court;

c) would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature;

d) includes commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information;

e) would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law 

enforcement or security purposes;

f) would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders;

 

g) is information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information;

h) is information received in confidence from foreign Government;

Cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers;

i) The explanations given by the Council of Ministers to not provide the information has to be made public after the completion of the matter.

Further, matters which come under the exemptions specified shall also be not disclosed. 

Information which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy will not be disclosed unless the Central Public Information Officer or any other appellate authority is satisfied that it is in public interest to disclose the information.

Section 9

Under Section 9, an application can be rejected if:

Without affecting to the provisions of section 8, a Central Public Information Officer or a State Public Information Officer may reject a request for information which would involve an infringement of copyright subsisting in a person other than the State.

Section 11

Under Section 11, an application can be rejected if:

Where a Central Information Officer or a State Public Information Officer intends to disclose the information supplied by a third party and has been treated as confidential by that third party, then the officer within five days from the receipt of the request, give a written notice to such third party of the request and invite the third party to make a submission in writing or orally, regarding whether the information should be disclosed, and such submission will be considered while taking a decision about disclosure of information:

Provided that except in the case of trade or commercial secrets protected by law, disclosure may be allowed if the public interest in disclosure outweighs in importance any possible harm or injury to the interests of such third party.

Section 24

Security and Intelligence organizations are exempted from this Act

But the information pertaining to the allegations of corruption and human rights violations shall not be excluded under this and in the case of information sought for is in respect of allegations of violation of human rights, the information shall only be provided after the approval of the Central Information Commission and such information shall be provided within forty-five days from the date of the receipt of request.

The Central Government may include or exclude any intelligence or security organization by a notification in the official gazette and nothing specified in this section will be applicable to such organisations. But information in relation to corruption and human rights violation shall not be excluded and information sought in respect of violation of human rights will be provided after the approval of the State Information Commission.