Orders on sale in UP information body

The UP Information Commission is the only commission in the country to sell its orders. All other commissions not only send copies of their orders to the concerned parties free of cost, but also upload them on their websites.

The UP Information Commission is the only commission in the country to sell its orders.

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All other commissions not only send copies of their orders to the concerned parties free of cost, but also upload them on their websites.

The RTI Act does not give any powers to any commission to charge money for copies of its orders. When asked under RTI, the papers provided by it tell an interesting story.

The first document on record is a letter dated July 17, 2006, by Mata Prasad to the secretary to the commission. The letter states that "as per oral orders of the Hon'ble Chief Information Commissioner" the Commission has been providing certified copies of its orders at the rate of Rs 10 per page.

Subsequently, an order dated August 7 passed by the Chief Information Commissioner stated that copies of orders of closed cases shall be provided free of cost. Copies of ongoing cases shall be provided on payment of prescribed fee.

On December 18, 2008, Gyanendra Sharma, the then Chief Information Commissioner, passed an order that court stamp of Re 0.50 need not be pasted for obtaining copies of orders.

However, the fee of Rs 10 per order to obtain copies of interim orders would continue as earlier.