Now, people can approach consumer forums against lapses on the part of the authorities while giving information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
‘Deficiency of service’In a first-of-its-kind decision in the State, a consumer forum in Bangalore has ruled that the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act could be invoked whenever there was a “deficiency by the public authorities in providing services” under the RTI Act.
Under the Act, a public authority is required to provide certain services, and when the authority fails to do so, it amounts to “deficiency of service” and for such lapses the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act are applicable, according to the Third Additional Urban Bangalore District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum.
OrderA Bench comprising forum president T. Rajashekaraiah and member Subhashini passed an order on January 23 on a complaint by K. Dhananjay, an engineer working with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Koramangala, Bangalore, against the director of institute.
FeesThe IIA had collected Rs. 286 and Rs. 314 on two occasions in 2010–11 for providing certain documents after the Central Information Commission (CIC) directed it to supply information to Mr. Dhananjay when he complained that the institute failed to provide certain documents under the RTI Act.
The institute supplied the documents after the 30-day deadline lapsed.
The forum found that under Section 7 of the RTI Act, public authorities would have to supply information/documents for free if the information sought was supplied after the 30-day deadline.
Following this, the forum held that the action of the institute in collecting fees was “illegal” and hence amounted to “deficiency of service”, and directed the institute to refund Rs. 600 collected as fee to the complainant along with Rs. 900 as the cost of litigation.
