Info delayed, TN State Information Commissioner awards Rs 10,000 to Chennai-based activist
The petitions, originally addressed to the PIO at the commissionerate in Chepauk, were subsequently forwarded to the respective offices in Madurai region.
M Kasimayan
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu State Information Commission issued a show-cause notice to the public information officer of the Transport Commissionerate for not transferring an RTI plea within the stipulated five days and awarded a compensation of Rs 10,000 to the petitioner.
In 2021, M Kasimayan, an activist, filed two RTI petitions seeking information on driving licences with the same serial number (TN59 19830003285) being issued to two persons in Madurai and on the action taken against the erring officials, as assured by the then Transport Minister Raja Kannappan.
The petitions, originally addressed to the PIO at the commissionerate in Chepauk, were subsequently forwarded to the respective offices in Madurai region. While he received partial replies to his queries, he filed a complaint petition before the information commission for one of the petitions and filed a second appeal before the commission in connection with his other petition, as he did not get the information he sought in the first appeal as well.
The commission took up both cases on April 16 and confirmed that he did not get all the information he sought. State Chief Information Commissioner M Shakeel Akhter cited a Supreme Court order (Girish Ramchandra Deshpande vs Central Info Commission) and said the memos, censures, show-cause notices and punishment details have been classified under personnel information and directed the PIO to furnish the number of pending memos against the RTO staffers.
For not providing information such as the details of the motor vehicle inspector, PIO and names of the two persons who received driving licences with the same serial number, the information commissioner directed the commissionerate's PIO to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation to Kasimayan.
He also directed the PIO to reply to the show-cause notice seeking why disciplinary action should not be initiated against Thenmozhi, the then PIO of Madurai (South) RTO office, for forwarding the RTI petition in a month, instead of the five-day period as per rules.