₹25,000 fine on public info officer

Kanpur: UP State Information Commission has directed the district magistrate Kanpur Nagar to comply with the order passed by the commission’s bench headed by Rachana Pal on December 19,2022 in which the bench had slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 @ rate of Rs 250 per day on the public information officer.
The registrar, in his letter dated June 2, 2023, had directed the district magistrate to ensure recovery of the fine amount (Rs 25,000) from the salary of the public information officer concerned and deposit the same under appropriate head and submit the report before the commission within three months from the date of this letter.
Praveen Fighter, advocate and general secretary of Central Bar Association had lodged a complaint on July 7, 2017 before the district magistrate that the contractor was not laying interlocking tiles properly at Block No. 192-198 in Babu Purwa Colony. Praveen advocate on August 8, 2017 preferred an application under the Right to Information Act and sought information on what action had been taken on his complaint. When the information officer failed to provide the information, he made an appeal before ADM (Finance) being the first appellate officer who too failed to provide any information and thereafter the advocate made a second appeal before the State Information Commission.
Information commissioner Subhash Chandra Singh admitted the appeal and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 against the information officer on July 5, 2019. The district information officer instead of depositing the fine moved an application to waive the fine and placed several arguments.
The advocate strongly opposed all the arguments of the district administration and on June 2, 2023 information commissioner Rachana al dismissed all submissions of the district administration and ordered to realize the fine amount from the information officer and deposit the same in treasury.