APIC first Commission to issue arrest warrant to PIO

ITANAGAR, Dec 17: When the Arunachal Pradesh Information Commission (APIC) bagged the national RTI award in the ‘Best Commission’ category recently for outstanding performance, people of the State little realized that theirs is the first Commission to issue an arrest warrant against an erring Public Information Officer (PIO) in the country. Initiators of the award - Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF) and Hindustan Times for strengthening the transparency movement in India – had observed that the move is one of the best practices followed by any Information Commission that has led to APIC winning the most coveted award.

Setting the precedent for other Information Commissions across the country, including the Central Information Commission (CIC), Toko Anil, State Information Commissioner and an advocate by profession, had issued a bailable arrest warrant against the APIO of the Art and Culture Department in a case APIC No.42/2009 on complainant Tago Pai Camdir for not attending the court and reporting compliance of his interim order.

The Commissioner had passed an interim order asking the respondents to provide information to the complainant on July 13, 2009. He had also asked both parties to appear before him on July 31, 2009 to report compliance. However, the APIO failed to appear in the court nor inform of the action taken on the order.

This irked Anil who noted, “…the Commission is left with no other option but to invoke under Order-XVI, Rule 10 (3) CPC-1098 r/w section 18(3) of RTI Act 2005 and in the process warrant shall be issued against the APIO, who personally assure the Commission to comply the order of the Commission passed dated 13th July, 2009.”

This order is first of its kind since the inception of RTI Act and constitution of Information Commissions across the country.

With the actual reasons for the APIC to win the coveted award now having become public, congratulations are pouring in for Toko Anil and the Commission. Capital Complex Yachuli Area Welfare Association (CCYAWA) has even launched a campaign to let people, especially RTI activists of the State, participate in the online discussion that has erupted across the country on the web (www.rtiaward.org).

The arrest warrant is not the only qualification of APIC to win the national RTI Award. It received a high Overall Public Satisfaction (OPS) of 85 per cent. This means if 100 people approached APIC, 85 of them finally got the information they were seeking. This is almost three times the national average of 26 per cent. Also, the State is very high on getting its orders implemented. In 91 per cent of the orders passed by APIC people got the information.

The Commission does not close a case till the appellant registers his/her satisfaction. So, they follow the practice of ‘continuing mandamus’.

In 45 cases that it disposed, penalties were imposed on 25 officers in 2006-07. In the calendar year 2008, they imposed penalties in 18 per cent cases. Further, the Commission issued 43 orders, out of which 40 were passed in favour of disclosures. The APIC got the award with Rs 2 lakh cash for striving through the RTI to make India better under Information Commission category. THE SENTINEL