The Central Information Commission (CIC) has imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on a National Green Tribunal (NGT) official for sitting on a Right to Information query despite being ordered to provide information by his superiors.
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on a National Green Tribunal (NGT) official for sitting on a Right to Information query despite being ordered to provide information by his superiors.
The order against Chetan Chawla was issued based on a complaint by RTI activist RK Jain who wanted to find out how much money the tribunal had spent on hiring lawyers to defend its cases before the CIC. “It is pathetic that central public information commission officers are driving the RTI applicants to the CIC just because they do not implement the first appellate authority’s order,” said information commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu.
Acharyulu ordered the tribunal to deduct Rs 5,000 from Chawla’s salary for the next five months.