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RAJIV ROY
Sudhanshu Kumar Chaubey – Appellant
Versus
State of Bihar – Respondent
Rajiv Roy, J.—Heard Mr. Pawan Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioner, Mrs. Binita Singh representing the State Information Commission (for brevity ‘the Commission’), Mr. Suresh Kumar, learned counsel for the respondent no. 4 and Mr. Manish Kumar, learned AC to AAG-6.
2. The present petition has been preferred for the following relief(s):—
“for quashing the order dated 28.09.2015 passed in case no. 76147/12-13 by State Information Commissioner, Bihar whereby and where under penalty of Rs. 25,000/- has been imposed under section 20(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 and further for quashing the all subsequent orders after first order dated 28.09.2015 passed in Case No. 76147/12-13 imposing penalty upon the petitioner and/or pass such other order/orders as your Lordship may deem fit and proper in the fact and circumstances of the case.”
3. On 04.04.2012, the respondent no. 4 sought information from the office of the petitioner who was then holding the post of Deputy Collector Land Reforms, Sadar, Patna. It is to be noted that he joined the post on 12.07.2012 and as per the information given by him to ‘the Commission’, the petitioner handed over the charge of the said post on 14.
The court affirmed that public information officers must comply with information requests timely under the Right to Information Act, emphasizing accountability and transparency in governance.
The court established that the provisions of Section 20 of the Act, 2005 should be strictly construed, and the Commissioner must ensure that the conduct of the Information Officer was not bona fide b....
Imposing a penalty under RTI Act, 2005 requires the Public Information Officer to be given a chance to be heard, and liability under Section 20 cannot apply retroactively to an officer who was not in....
Public Information Officers can only be penalized under RTI for failures occurring during their tenure when a request was made, not retroactively for former officers' actions.
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