IMPORTANT POINT
The main legal point established is that penalties under Section 20 of the RTI Act should only be imposed in cases of mala fide non-disclosure or misleading information without reasonable cause, and departmental action can be recommended against the concerned officer(s) under the applicable service rules.

JUDGMENT

1. The present writ petition has been filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India challenging the order dated 24.02.2022 passed by the Central Information Commission and to provide true, correct and proper information to the petitioner to his RTI Applications No. 1447/2020 and No. 1453/2020 dated 19.05.2020 and 21.05.2020. The petitioner has also sought punishment against the respondents for failure in providing true and correct information in response to the abovementioned RTI Applications.

2. The facts, in brief, leading to the filing of the instant writ petition are as follows:

i. A quarrel broke-out between the Petitioner, his wife and one Vikas Tiwari on 27.02.2020 in-front of Hanuman Mandir near Police Booth Hardev Nagar, Burari owing to which he made a call on the police helpline 112 to seek assistance.

ii. The petitioner thereafter filed 4 RTI Applications under Section 6 of the RTI Act with the Public Information Officer, Police Control Room dated 19.05.2020 and 21.05.2020 seeking the following information:

i. RTI Application No. 1447/2020 dated 19.05.2020.

The following information was sought regarding calls made on Police Helpline 112 from the mobile numbers 9990090890 and 7503323332 between 9:15 and 9:30 PM on 27.02.2020

a. Forms filled in the CPCR regarding the above said call

b. Action Taken Against the accused person

c. All information received or taken from the victim

d. Whether any information has been received by the IO from other departments regarding the treatment of the victims

ii. RTI Application No. 1453/2020 dated 21.05.2020

The following information was sought regarding calls made on Police Helpline Number 112 from the mobile numbers 9990090890 and 7503323332 between 9 PM and 10 PM in 27.02.2020

a. Forms filled in the CPCR regarding the call

b. Whether proper treatment was given to the victim

c. If any CCTV footage was collected as Evidence

d. Amount of Police officials present in Hardev Nagar Police Booth Between 9-10PM

iii. RTI Application No. 1454/2020 dated 21.05.2020.

Information was sought regarding call made on the Police Helpline Number 112 from the mobile numbers of the petitioner between 11:30 PM to 12:00 AM on the intervening night of 18.10.2019 about public nuisance at B-26, Hardev Nagar, Burari.

iv. RTI Application No. 1455/2020 dated 21.05.2020

Information was sought regarding DD No. 35B dated 24.09.2019 related to encroachment of public streets in Burari.

iii. The PIO, North District, Civil Lines replied to the RTI Applications No. 1447/2020 and No. 1453/2020 vide reply dated 19.06.2020 and 22.06.2020 respectively stating the following

i. No PCR Call was received from the PS Wazirabad from either of the mobile numbers.

ii. Further information was sought from ACP Timarpur which revealed that one call was received from the Mobile Number 7503323332, and a challan was traced from that number, details of which were provided to the petitioner.

iii. It was also stated that no call was received from the mobile Number 9990090890

iv. Dissatisfied with the reply of the PIO, the petitioner preferred an appeal under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act to both the replies dated 19.06.2020 and 22.06.2020 in front of the Dy. Commissioner of Police, North East.

v. The First Appellate Authority/Dy. Commissioner vide orders dated 02.11.2020 disposed of Appeal No. 221/2020/Appeal/RTI/North District w.r.t. RTI Application dated 19.05.2020 and Appeal No. 222/2020/Appeal/RTI/North District w.r.t. RTI Application dated 21.05.2020 and remanded both the RTI Applications back to the PIO to provide a fresh reply to the petitioner.

vi. Aggrieved by the orders of the First Appellate Authority, the petitioner filed a second appeal under Section 19(3) of the RTI Act dated 10.12.2020 before the Ld. Central Information Commission.

vii. During the pendency of the second appeal before the Ld. CIC, additional information was obtained from the SHO, Wazirabad which was duly forwarded to the petitioner by ACP, Timarpur vide letter dated 14.12.