CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION

 Minutes  of the Meeting of the Commission held on 3.1.2006 in the  chamber of CIC

 Present:

                    1.Shri Wajahat Habibullah, CIC in chair

                   2.Smt. Padma Balasubramanian, IC

                   3.Dr.O.P. Kejariwal, IC

                    Joint Secretary & Registrar assisted the Commission.

1.    The Commission approved the minutes of the meeting held on 27th December, 2005.  It was decided that the minutes recorded should be self-explanatory. The Commission directed to place the order relating to  allocation of work among various Commissioners on the internet  site of the Commission.

2.    The Commission decided that till further notice it will meet at 11 AM instead of 10.30 AM of every Tuesday.

3.    The Commission discussed about the procedure to be adopted while hearing the complaints and the appeals under the RTI Act, 2005 (hereinafter referred as the Act).  Exercising powers conferred by Clause (e) & (f) of sub-Section 2 of Section 27 of the Act Government has  notified Central Information Commission (Appeal Procedure) Rules, 2005.  The Commission decided that a reference be made to the Ministry for amending the Rules to incorporate a  suitable provision where the Chief Information Commissioner would be empowered to exercise all such powers and do all such acts and things for setting up the procedures for hearing the appeals,  the complaints received  and for internal functioning of the Commission.

4.    Pending the clarification of the Government or modification of CIC (Appeal Procedure Rules), 2005, it was decided that the work allocated among various Commissioners in its last meeting would continue and the Commissioner for the relevant group of Ministries/appropriate authorities will become the Principal Commissioner who will be assisted by one more companion Commissioner while hearing the appeals  or complaints.  The grouping of the Commissioners would be as follows:

Sl.No.          Commissioners of the Group

Group No. I     CIC and IC (PB)

Group No. II     IC (PB) and IC (K)

Group No. III     IC (K) and IC (A)

Group No. IV     IC (A) and IC (T)

Group No. V     IC (T) and CIC

In each of the Groups the first Commissioner would be the Principal Commissioner who will seek the convenience of the companion Commissioner of the Group where he/she is a member  to join him/her for hearing any particular appeal or enquiring into the complaint under the Act.  In event of any disagreement between the two Commissioners, the matter would be placed before the CIC for placing it before a bigger Group of Commissioners which would be 3 or 5 at his discretion.

5.    The Commission took note of a letter received from Sri Nath of Nath Bros Exim International Ltd. where Mr. Nath had mentioned that file notings were no longer exempt though the Freedom of Information of Act 2002 did provide for such exemption.

6.    It was decided to leave it to respective Commissioners to write to the public authorities allocated to them, at their discretion with all the communications being placed before the meeting of the Commission.

7.    The Commission took note of a communication received from Information Commissioner of UK where 4th International Conference of Information Commissioners would be held on May 21 to May 23, 2006.  The Commission directed the Joint Secretary to check with the Information Commissioner’s office of UK as to how many Commissioners are expected  from India for this  purpose.

8.    The Commission decided that the Ministry of Personnel may be requested to treat the Commission as an Organization not under the control of Government so that it should have power to recruit appropriate persons meeting the requirements of the Commission. The post of Director to be filled in the Commission should be filled by a person who preferably has a degree of Law and legal experience. Pending formation of Recruitment Rules,   Ministry of Personnel may be requested to post Mr. L.C. Singhi, IAS who was till very recent a Professor of Law at LBS National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. On completion of his tenure, he has been repatriated to his cadre.  If the Government of Assam was willing to spare his services, the Commission would like to take him   as Joint Registrar and Director for enabling it to set up its courts for  taking up appeals under the Act.

9.    The Commission decided  to engage a Media Manager who could be outsourced the work to publicity and managing the media on behalf of the Commission.  IC (K) was requested to advise.

10.The Commission was briefed about the alternate organization structures for manning various posts.   A copy of these charts is Annexed as appendix A.  The Commission approved chart A-2 as the model to be adopted for the Commission.  With approval of the CIC, Government would be requested to sanction suitable number of posts.   Pending formulation of recruitment rules, the Commission should fill these posts by circulating these vacancies among all departments of Central Government.  The staff of the Commission should be taken on deputation and given deputation allowance as per rules.  The work at present is assigned as follows: appeals and enquiries to be distributed between the Deputy Secretary (Shri S.C. Bhatia) and Under Secretary (Shri Munish Kumar).  Shri Negi PS to IC (T) to be designated Administrative Officer till a suitable officer joined the Commission.   This work would be over and above   his routine work.  PPS to IC (A) has been given additional charge of DDO.   While Shri Bhatia would be assisted by one Assistant, Under Secretary would be provided an Assistant as soon as he/she joined the Commission.  Shri Sabharwal an Assistant with the Commission had been designated as the Cashier.  This team will work under the general supervision and control of Joint Secretary & Registrar.  The template for giving pro active disclosure under Section 4 of the RTI  Act has been circulated to all the Information Commissioners who may like to look at it and give more suggestions.  After it has been finalized, it shall be placed before the CIC for final approval.

 

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