New Delhi: The Central Information Commission
has summoned a Secretary of the Delhi Government for
"consistently defying" orders of the Delhi High Court and
transparency panel on making public a seniority list of people
who were to be given alternative plots in return of their
acquired property.
"The Commission summons Secretary, Land and Building
Department, along with the Public Information Officer to
appear before it...with their explanations for defying the
orders of the Delhi High Court and the Commission
consistently," Shailesh Gandhi said in his order.
Irked with defiance of its order of December 9, 2010, and
Delhi High Court order of April 30, 2010, to place list of
such people on its web site, Information Commissioner Shailesh
Gandhi directed the Secretary, Land and Building, Delhi
Government to come with proper explanation.
"The Commission will consider taking appropriate steps to
ensure that officers implement all orders given with the seal
of law...The Commission expects that the Secretary would at
least come forth and show the Commission that its order has
been implemented," he said.
The case related to an RTI applicant Sandeep Thakur, who
sought to know from the Delhi Government "the seniority list
of persons whose land has been acquired and also list of
persons to whom recommendations for alternative plots has been
made". But no such list was provided claiming that no such
information exists.
The Commission pointed out a Delhi High Court order dated
April 30, 2010, which directed the Government to "consider
placing the seniority list on the website of the Land and
Building Department" in order to keep the applicants for
alternative plots inform of the current status of their
applications.
"The website status should be constantly updated as and
when there is a movement in applicants file. This exercise
will be undertaken, preferably within eight weeks, in
consultation with information technology department of GNCTD,"
the HC order said.
The Delhi Government had accepted before the Commission
that the total number of people whose list have to be put-up
is about 9,500 but said the decision to host these on web site
had not reached any finality as of now.
"It is unthinkable that Delhi Government cannot put-up
the seniority list for such a small number, and finds it more
convenient to defy the orders of the Delhi High Court and this
Commission...The Commission notes with distress that no effort
appears to have been made to implement the order of the Delhi
High Court and this Commission`s order of December 9, 2010,"
Gandhi said.
In its order dated December 9, 2010, on the issue, the CIC
has said that the HC order had been flouted and had directed
the Secretary to place the seniority lists of persons whose
land has been acquired in Delhi and also lists of persons to
whom recommendations for alternative plots has been made as
per the order of the Delhi High Court on the website before
January 15, 2011, as mandated under section four of the RTI
Act.
"This order has also not been implemented. It is an
absurd state of affairs that the state acquires lands from
citizens and does not deliver what it has promised in return.
Citizens using RTI applications have been trying to
desperately find out why some of them have got alternate lands
and some have not," Gandhi said in his order.
PTI
