GUIDELINES FOR THE OFFICERS DESIGNATED AS THE PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICERS, BY THE DEPARTMENT OF PERSONNEL AND TRAINING, DATED, 27-02-2008 AND LIABLE FOR CONTRAVENTIONS

The right to information Act, 2005 empowers citizens to get information from the public authority. The public information of a public authority plays a pivotal role in making the right of a citizen to information a reality, as such the Act casts specific duties on the public information officer and makes him liable for penalty in case of the default. It is therefore essential, for a public information officer to study the Act carefully and understand its provisions correctly. Following aspects should particularly be kept in view while dealing with the applications under the Act. The Government of India Department of personnel and training OM No, 1/69/2007-IR dated, 27-2-2008 , provides that a public information officer may seek the assistance of any other officer for proper discharge of his/her duties and such other officer would be deemed to be a public information officer and would be liable for contraventions of the provisions of the Act the same way as the public information officer himself. Since the public information officer may seek the assistance of any officer, it is desirable for all the officers to acquire necessary knowledge about the provisions of the Act, which a public information officer should have. The Guide would help them in the task. All Ministries/Departments etc, are requested to bring the contents of the Guide to the notice of all concerned. The Act gives the citizens a right to information at par with the Members of the parliament and the Members of the state legislatures. According to the Act, the information which cannot be denied to the parliament or a State legislature, shall not be denied to any person , by the public information officer, however the Act gives the right to information only to the citizens of India, It does not make provision for giving information to Corporations, Associations, Companies, etc, which are legal entities/persons, but not citizens. However, if an application is made by an employee or office -bearer of any Corporation, Association, Company, NGO etc, indicating his name and such employee/office -bearer is a citizen of India, information may be supplied to him /her.In such cases, it would be presumed that a citizen has sought information at the address of the Corporation, etc :-- Er Fateh chand Guleria, Director, RTI welfare Association registered number HPCD, 3552 , Bilaspur Himachal Pradesh phone number, 9459334377