Summary of the provisions of the Maharashtra Act

 

 

Competent Authority

 

In the new Maharashtra Right to Information Act, 2002, `competent Authority', who appoints Public Information Officers in every office under him and functions as the first appellate authority in most cases, is defined as:

 

i)                the Head of every Administrative Department of the State Government;

ii)            the Administrative Heads of the public and other authorities in the State;

iii)        the Registrar of Co-operative Societies for the Co-operative Societies registered under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960;

iv)            the Registrar of Societies for the Societies registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860;

v)                the Charity Commissioner, for Charity Commissioner's Office and the Public Trusts registered under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950;

vi)            the Commissioner of Labour for the trade unions registered with him;

vii)        the secretary of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission for the administrative wing of the Maharashtra Public Service commission;

viii)    the Registrar of the Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayuktas for the administrative wing of the Office of Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayuktas.

 

Information  

 

`Information' means information relating to any matter in respect of the affairs of the Government and of any public authority and includes a copy of any record in the form of a document, diskettes, floppy or any other electronic mode.

 

Public Authority

 

`Public authority' means any authority or body established or constituted by any Central or State law and includes any other body owned and controlled by the State or which receives any aid directly or indirectly by the Government and shall include the bodies whose composition and administration are predominantly controlled by the Governmentor the functions of such body are of public nature or interest or on which office bearers are appointed by the Government.

 

The expression ``aid'' shall include Government aid in the form of Government land at concessional rates or any other monetory concession like tax, etc., by the Government as specified by the Government from time to time.

 

 

 

Exemptions from disclosure of information

Areas where disclosure of information is prohibited are 11.

 

These are:

 

a.information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, relation with foreign state or lead to incitement of an offence;

 

 

Provided that, whenever any information sought is to be withheld on these grounds, he request for such information shall forthwith be put up by the Public Information Officer through the Competent to a high level committee to be appointed by the government for consideration and decision.

 

Provided further that, the Public Information Officer shall, after obtaining the approval from such Committee for rejection of the request, while communicating such rejection to the applicant mention that such rejection is with the approval of the Committee;

 

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

 

c.information, the disclosure of which would cause of breach of privilege of Parliament or the state legislature; 

 

d.information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of 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.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;

 

f.information pertaining to service record of a person; 

 

g.information received in confidence from foreign government or international organization;

 

h.information, the disclosure of which 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; 

 

i. information, the disclosure of which is prohibited under the provisions of the Official Secrets Act, 1923;

 

j.information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or  prosecution of offenders; and

 

k.information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual, unless the Competent Authority is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information.

 

Another section lays down that information may also be rejected if

 

a.    the information is already published in the Official Gazette or otherwise, and is available to public or is such a nature that the volume of information required to be retrieved or processed, would involve disproportionate diversion of the resources of a public authority;

Provided that, where such request is rejected on the aforesaid ground, it shall be the duty of the Public Information Officer to render help as far as possible to the person seeking information to reframe the request in such a manner as may facilitate the supply of information;

 

b. it relates to information that is required by law, rules, regulations or order to be published at a particular time.

 

And where it can be given be given nevertheless

 

Despite these exclusions, the legislation has a provision that elevates the statues of common citizens, and quite rightfully so, to their elected representatives in the Parliament and the state legislature.

 

It says: ``any information which cannot be withheld from the Parliament and the state legislature shall necessarily be made available to the applicant under the provisions of the Act.''

 

This section also states that the information pertaining to decision making in a case, shall be made available to any applicant after the decision has been taken or deemed to have been taken in such case and the matter is complete or over;

 

and

 

any information relating to any occurrence, event or matter which has taken place, occurred or happened fifteen years before the date on which any request is made under sub-section (1) of section 6, shall be provided to any person making such request.

 

Then the Act states in explicit terms:

 

No request for an information shall be totally rejected on the ground that it is in relation to an information or record which is exempted from the disclosure, if it is possible to give that information from the part of the record which does not contain any information that is exempted from disclosure under this Act, and which can reasonably be severed from any part of the record that contains the exempted information.

 

Procedure

 

The competent Authority under the Act has to appoint Public Information Officers under him in every office establishment. Citizens have to approach these information officers and make their request for specific information in a prescribed format and on payment of fees which would be prescribed in rules to be framed, once the act is enforced. The information officer has been given just 15 working days either to provide the information as requested or reject the request by giving specific reasons strictly as provided by the Act in its exclusion clauses.

 

While rejecting a request, it will be mandatory for the information officer to mention in writing i) the reasons for such rejection; ii) the period within which an appeal against such rejection may be preferred; and iii) the officer or authority before whom the appeal should be preferred by the applicant.

 

Though it will be mandatory for the public information officer to provide the information sought within 15 working days, ``in a suitable case, with the permission of the competent authority and for the reasons to be communicated to the applicant in writing, the time limit may be extended by another 15 working days.''

 

Appeals

 

Aggrieved by a decision of the public information officer, the citizen demanding the information has to approach the Competent Authority that has appointed the public information officer within 30 days from the receipt of the decision. The Competent Authority sitting in appeal has to give a hearing to the complaining citizen before taking his own decision in the matter ``as far as possible within 30 days from the receipt of the appeal or within such extended period not extended period not exceeding a further period of 30 days, after recording in writing the reasons for such extension of period.''.

 

The citizen still has another avenue to appeal. This is something unique in the proposed Maharashtra legislation as compared to others in the country. ``Any person aggrieved by the order of the appellate authority (that is, the Competent Authority), may within 30 days from the receipt of such order, prefer second appeal to the Lokayukta orUpa-Lokayuktas of the state.'' The Lokayukta or the Upa-Lokayukta has to give his decision on the appeal within 30 days or an extended period of 30 days after recording the reasons.

 

The decision of the Lokayukta or Upa-Lokayuktas, as the case may be, in appeals will be final. However, the citizen can still prefer to file a writ petition in the high court against the order of the Lokayukta or Upa-Lokayukta.

 

Penalty for willful defiance

 

The penalty provision in the legislation, which was missing in the earlier Act of 2000, is the most stringent in the country. It says: `` Where any public information officer has without any reasonable cause, failed to supply the information sought, within the period specified, the appellate authority may, in appeal impose a penalty of Rs 250 for each day's delay in furnishing the information, after giving such pubic information officer a reasonable opportunity of being heard...''

 

``Where it is found in appeal that any public information officer has knowingly given, - a) incorrect or misleading information, or b) wrong or incomplete information, the appellate authority may impose a penalty not exceeding Rs 2,000....The penalty will be recoverable from the salary of the public information officer concerned, or if no salary is drawn, as arrears of land revenue. The erring public information officer will also be liable to appropriate disciplinary action under the service rules applicable to him. 

 

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