The earlier blog of this series is posted at http://raviforjustice.blogspot.in/2014/08/140809-rtia-exposing-idiots-and.html under the title 140809-RTIA-EXPOSING THE IDIOTS AND TRAITORS AMOUNG PUBLIC SERVANTS- CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION, NEW DELHI. This blog is actually a feedback given to Ms Manjula Prashar, Information Commissioner, CIC, New Delhi after receipt of her decision, dated 11 Aug 2014, in Appeal No CIC/VS/A/2013/001810/MP. The order can be downloaded from the website of the CIC, that is http://cic.gov.in. Read on to understand how incompetent/trecherous these public servants are.
from: Ravindran P M
to: m.prasher@nic.in
date: Tue, Aug 26, 2014 at 10:50 AM
subject: feedback: decision in Appeal No CIC/VS/A/2013/001810/MP
1. Perform or perish- Minister Sadananda Gowda had reportedly told his men in the railways. I can easily plagiarise him and tell all public servants: perform or get exposed!
2. I find your decision in the above appeal most repugnant to even basic common sense, forget about the higher issues of justice and ethics! But I am not shocked because it falls amoung the category of those decisions of information commissioners that are subversive of the very law that they have been tasked, empowered and paid (to the extent of being pampered) to enforce! I have every reason to suspect that information commissioners are willfully failing to comply with the law for extraneous reasons including corruption.
3. To begin with you had exposed your ignorance of your job by telling me, the appellant, to forward copies of the appeal to the respondents! At the cost of annoying you I had to refuse to comply with such illegal instructions.
4. Now, I find the following illegalities in your decision:
4.1. You have filed to note the import of Sec 2(h) where even non-Government organizations have been bought into the fold of the RTI Act on the ground of being substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government! So it is obvious that nothing, I repeat NOTHING, with respect to government funds would invite the provisions catering for exemptions from disclosure on account
of fiduciary relationship.
4.2. You have also failed to take cognizance of the inconsistencies in the reasons given by the PIO and FAA to deny information. While the former had denied it on the ground of not holding the info, the latter had taken recourse to misinterpreting the provision of fiduciary relationship!
4.3. You have also rendered yourself to ridicule by copying the statement of the FAA that the Govt of Kerala also being amenable to the RTI Act the info can be obtained from them directly! Haven't you exposed your ignorance of one of the best provisions of law, that is Sec 6(3) of the RTI Act which mandates that public authorities receiving applications for information not held with them are required to forward it to those who are likely to hold them and inform the applicant of such an action and that too within 5 days of receipt of the application?
4.4. I find you have again reproduced the idiotic statement of the FAA that no public interest is served in seeking the information. I can't blame him because, as is usual with public servants, he would be under the mistaken notion that he is duty bound to protect his delinquent PIO. But such excuses cannot be accepted from you who is tasked, empowered and paid to enforce the law as it is! But then as with the other provisions of the law, you are evidently ignorant of Sec 6(2) of the RTI Act which unambiguously states that 'An applicant making request for information shall not be required to give any reason for requesting the information or any other personal details except those that may be necessary for contacting him.' So where does the question of fulfilling any public interest come in? Well, public interest is a factor that needs to be considered when deciding on disclosing certain information which are otherwise exempted from disclosure, for example read Sec 8(1)(j), 8(2) and the proviso to Sec 11(1) of the RTI Act .
5. I doubt if you can understand the simple logic in the statement that people who do not know their job are idiots and public servants who do not do their job correctly are traitors. I find from you profile, posted at the website of the Commission, that you are from the Indian Postal Services. Without going into the obnoxious quality of services provided by the postal department (can you imagine that when trying to track registered letters at the website of the postal department you can get ridiculous responses like 'the originating post office not known'?) Any how, the indian civil services are notorious the world over as the biggest impediment in the growth of the nation. Officially constituted committees have even gone on to study the 'politician-bureaucrat-underworld nexus'. Not that such studies, at taxpayers' expense, were required because the mango people knew it all along through their own personal experiences. And now the Right to Information Act, through its simplicity and unambiguity, has even provided enough and more evidence to declare that most of our public servants are either idiots or traitors and so long as such public servants occupy offices of authority this country need not have any enemies beyond its borders!
Yours truly,
P M Ravindran
from: Ravindran P M
to: m.prasher@nic.in
date: Tue, Aug 26, 2014 at 10:50 AM
subject: feedback: decision in Appeal No CIC/VS/A/2013/001810/MP
1. Perform or perish- Minister Sadananda Gowda had reportedly told his men in the railways. I can easily plagiarise him and tell all public servants: perform or get exposed!
2. I find your decision in the above appeal most repugnant to even basic common sense, forget about the higher issues of justice and ethics! But I am not shocked because it falls amoung the category of those decisions of information commissioners that are subversive of the very law that they have been tasked, empowered and paid (to the extent of being pampered) to enforce! I have every reason to suspect that information commissioners are willfully failing to comply with the law for extraneous reasons including corruption.
3. To begin with you had exposed your ignorance of your job by telling me, the appellant, to forward copies of the appeal to the respondents! At the cost of annoying you I had to refuse to comply with such illegal instructions.
4. Now, I find the following illegalities in your decision:
4.1. You have filed to note the import of Sec 2(h) where even non-Government organizations have been bought into the fold of the RTI Act on the ground of being substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government! So it is obvious that nothing, I repeat NOTHING, with respect to government funds would invite the provisions catering for exemptions from disclosure on account
of fiduciary relationship.
4.2. You have also failed to take cognizance of the inconsistencies in the reasons given by the PIO and FAA to deny information. While the former had denied it on the ground of not holding the info, the latter had taken recourse to misinterpreting the provision of fiduciary relationship!
4.3. You have also rendered yourself to ridicule by copying the statement of the FAA that the Govt of Kerala also being amenable to the RTI Act the info can be obtained from them directly! Haven't you exposed your ignorance of one of the best provisions of law, that is Sec 6(3) of the RTI Act which mandates that public authorities receiving applications for information not held with them are required to forward it to those who are likely to hold them and inform the applicant of such an action and that too within 5 days of receipt of the application?
4.4. I find you have again reproduced the idiotic statement of the FAA that no public interest is served in seeking the information. I can't blame him because, as is usual with public servants, he would be under the mistaken notion that he is duty bound to protect his delinquent PIO. But such excuses cannot be accepted from you who is tasked, empowered and paid to enforce the law as it is! But then as with the other provisions of the law, you are evidently ignorant of Sec 6(2) of the RTI Act which unambiguously states that 'An applicant making request for information shall not be required to give any reason for requesting the information or any other personal details except those that may be necessary for contacting him.' So where does the question of fulfilling any public interest come in? Well, public interest is a factor that needs to be considered when deciding on disclosing certain information which are otherwise exempted from disclosure, for example read Sec 8(1)(j), 8(2) and the proviso to Sec 11(1) of the RTI Act .
5. I doubt if you can understand the simple logic in the statement that people who do not know their job are idiots and public servants who do not do their job correctly are traitors. I find from you profile, posted at the website of the Commission, that you are from the Indian Postal Services. Without going into the obnoxious quality of services provided by the postal department (can you imagine that when trying to track registered letters at the website of the postal department you can get ridiculous responses like 'the originating post office not known'?) Any how, the indian civil services are notorious the world over as the biggest impediment in the growth of the nation. Officially constituted committees have even gone on to study the 'politician-bureaucrat-underworld nexus'. Not that such studies, at taxpayers' expense, were required because the mango people knew it all along through their own personal experiences. And now the Right to Information Act, through its simplicity and unambiguity, has even provided enough and more evidence to declare that most of our public servants are either idiots or traitors and so long as such public servants occupy offices of authority this country need not have any enemies beyond its borders!
Yours truly,
P M Ravindran
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