DISPOSAL OF FIRST APPEALS UNDER THE RTI ACT, 2005 AND TIME-LIMIT FOR DISPOSAL OF APPEAL

The First Appellate Authority has a very important role under the RTI Act, 2005 The independent and judicious examination of appeals by the First Appellate Authorities would lead to higher satisfaction to the appellants. This would in turn, result in less number of second appeals to the information commissioner (2) The information sought by an applicant should either be supplied to him by the public information officer or his application should be rejected within the time prescribed under the Act. If additional fee need be charged from the applicant, timely communication in this regard should be sent to him. (3) If the applicant does not receive information or decision about rejection of request or communication about payment of additional fee within the specified time, he can make an appeal to the First appellate authority. Appeal can also be made if the applicant is aggrieved by the decision of the public information officer regarding supply of information or the quantum of fee decided by the public information officer. The applicant may prefer the first appeal within thirty days from the expiry of such period or from the receipt of such a decision of the public information officer. (4) The first appellate authority may admit the appeal after expiry of the period of thirty days if he or she satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from filing the appeal in time. (5) A third party can also prefer an appeal to the First appellate authority against the order of the public information officer to disclose third party information. Such an appeal shall be made within thirty days from the date of the order. As far as disposal of appeal is concerned, the FAA should act in a fair and judicious manner. It is very important that the order passed by the FAA should be a detailed and speaking order, giving justification for the decision arrived at. If in any case the public information officer does not implement the order passed by the appellate authority and the appellate authority feels that intervention of higher authority is required to get his order implemented, he should bring the matter to the notice of the officer in the public authority competent to take action against the public information officer. Such competent officer shall take necessary action so as to ensure implementation of the provisions of the RTI Act. Time -limit for disposal of appeal by the FAA is 30 days from the receipt of the appeal, however in some exceptional cases the appellate authority may take 45 days for its disposal and in such cases the appellate authority should record, in writing, the reasons for not deciding the appeal within 30 days:-- Er Fateh Chand Guleria, RTI Welfare Addiction registered number HPCD 3552 , Bilaspur Himachal pradesh phone number 9459334377