Case No 510/2009 Order to search, produce documents from 1954 to 1955

26.12.07 and 07.08.09 the Public Authority has provided the information for 7 items and for other items the Public Authority has mentioned that the records are not available. During enquiry the Public Information Officer stated that since the records are pertaining to the year 1954-55 and at that time it was functioned as Town Panchayat. Since the records are not traceable at his office he was not able to provide the information to the petitioner. It was observed that the Town Panchayat became a selection grade Municipality with effect from 15.01.95 and so the records maintained by the Town Panchayat will be available in the same office after it became Municipality. The Commission observed that the information sought by the petitioner was not supplied to him eventhough the information was available in the Municipality.
After detailed enquiry, the following orders was passed by the Commission.
1) The Public Information Officer is ordered to trace out the records from his office and furnish the information sought by the petitioner within 15 days from the receipt of this order and send a compliance report to the Commission.
2) The Director of Municipal Administration is directed to call for the explanation from the concerned Public Information Officer to show cause as to why the penal provision should not be invoked under section 20(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, for not furnishing the information to the petitioner for the last 23 months and send the report to this Commission within a month from the date of receipt of this order.