Early Times Report
Srinagar, Feb 19: The services selection recruitment board (SSRB) is alleged to have 'defied' orders of chief information commissioner (CIC) G R Sufi by not providing complete information to an RTI activist who was not selected as a teacher a few years back. He has been seeking copies of his answer sheets, but SSRB is not parting with them.
Gul Mohammad Rather of Srigufwara, Anantnag, filed an RTI application before PIO, JKSSRB, Srinagar, on August 1, 2014, seeking xerox copies of answer sheets under Roll No 101002663 and that of the question paper of series "A", pertaining to teachers' post, Anantnag. He also sought written cut merit of item No 235, 381 and 442.
While the PIO was under legal obligation to respond to the RTI application within 30 days, information was not made available to him. He then filed first appeal before First Appellate Authority (FAA), ie SSRB secretary, who adjudicated the appeal after giving an opportunity of being heard to the applicant. The FAA, vide his March 19, 2015 order, directed PIO to provide information to the RTI activist without any further delay. The PIO then passed an order on March 25, 2015 and provided him information, but he contested that the information was not in accordance with the RTI application. He submitted that he had sought Question Booklet Series "A", while as PIO had provided him Series "D". Therefore, having received incorrect information, he moved the commission on December 23, 2015.
CIC's February 3, 2016 order reads as:
"Commission perused the record and found that information was provided late and the information provided after FAA's directive to him was incorrect and incomplete. Javid Ahmad, Senior Law Officer-cum-PIO, JKSSRB, submitted before the commission that inadvertently, question booklet series "D" was provided by his predecessor instead of series "A". He submitted that correct and complete information has now been provided to the information seeker, which he also confirmed of having received. Since, information was delayed by A G Zargar, the previous PIO, and later on incorrect and incomplete information was provided to the RTI activist, he is directed to explain why penalty may not be imposed on him for delaying information and for providing incorrect and incomplete information. His reply must reach the commission within 15 days of the receipt of this order. Registry to put up the file immediately after the time of explanation from then PIO is over."
The appellant claimed that though he attempted most of the questions, he got less marks and when he sought the copies of his answer paper under RTI, it was delayed and finally a wrong series of answer sheet was provided. "Even after CIC's order, SSRB has again provided me incomplete information. ," he claimed. |
