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RAJESH SHANKAR
Jharkhand State Electricity Board, through its General Manager – Appellant
Versus
Nadim Khan – Respondent
JUDGMENT :
The present writ petition has been filed for quashing the order dated 29.04.2011 (Annexure-11 to the writ petition) passed by the Jharkhand State Information Commission [hereinafter referred to as ‘the Commission’] in Appeal No. 2028/2010 whereby a penalty of Rs.25,000/- under Section 20(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 [hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act, 2005’] was imposed upon the petitioner No.2 to be deducted from his salary in five equal monthly instalments, who at that time was holding the post of the Public Information Officer-cum-Deputy General Manager, Electric Supply Area, Ranchi.
2. The relevant facts emanating from the writ petition is that the respondent No.1 made an application under Section 6 of the Act, 2005 in the office of the Deputy General Manager-cum-Superintending Engineer, Electric Supply Circle, Ranchi i.e. the Office of the Public Information Officer on 29.08.2009 seeking ten points information as mentioned therein. When the said information was not supplied to him within the stipulated period of 30 days, he filed first appeal on 08.10.2009 before the petitioner No.1 seeking desired information free of cost. According to the respondent No
The main legal point established in the judgment is the mandatory adherence to the principles of natural justice and the requirement for a reasonable opportunity of being heard before imposing a pena....
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....
Officers can only be penalized for information delays if they were in charge at the time of the request; newly appointed officers are not liable for prior delays.
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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