An RTI applicant criticized the state information commission (SIC) for rejecting his appeal after keeping it in queue for over a year. While disposing off his appeal, the commission said that the matter pertained to central information commission.

Arvind Mishra, a resident of Bhopal had filed second appeal with the SIC against the Tata Memorial Hospital. The applicant sought information about a doctor in his application dated May 5, 2017. In his application, he had sought details of the doctor who worked had worked with the hospital, his post and registration details among others.

The applicant said that he was not provided with any information. When he did not get any any information after first appeal, he filed a second appeal with the information commission dated September 9, 2017. His appeal eventually came for hearing on January 2, 2019.

"My mother had passed away inside CT scan machine in Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer Hospital in Madhya Pradesh. All the doctors in that room were unauthorised and unregistered. Based on our complaint, enquiry started and the medical council sought two expert opinions to establish medical negligence," alleged Arvind Mishra, the applicant.

He added, "One was sought by AIIMS doctor and the other by Tata Memorial. While Delhi doctor refused to give his opinion, the Mumbai doctor gave his opinion on some other hospital's letter head without his medical registration number. He gave a clean chit to those people. Such opinion cannot be given without registration number and he seemed to have worked at TMC and the hospital acknowledged that to me but did not have his details. That is when I filed second appeal."

Mishra said that he had filed an appeal with the commission after the online system did not list the Tata Memorial Hospital among the hospital listed with central government. "I had checked the online system and it did not show. That is when I decided to file an application with state information commission. 

They have caused me harassment and inconvenience. I spent Rs 26,000 in air fares and hotel accommodation besides facing other troubles. Appeals do not get heard directly by the commissioner. There are various stages before it reaches that stage. They should have ensured that it is not considered before sending me a notice to attend appeal hearing. After making me wait for over a year, they have rejected it. Even during the appeal stage I had flown and come and the person was not there for appeal. This is harassment," said Mishra. There was no response from the commission.