CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION
Club Building (Near
Post Office)
Old JNU Campus, New
Delhi - 110067
Tel: +91-11-26161796
Decision No. CIC/SG/C/2011/000930/14501
Complaint No. CIC/SG/C/2011/000930
Complainant
: Mr.
Saurabh Sharma,
C-7/E, D.D.A Flats, Munirka,
New Delhi-110067
Respondent
: The Additional Commissioner (Education)
Municipal
Corporation of Delhi
Education Department,
15th Floor, Civic Centre, Minto Road,
New Delhi – 110 001
Complaint
filed on
: 08.06.2011
Hearing
Notice Issued
on
:
18.08.2011
Date
of
Hearing
: 08.09.2011
Facts
arising from the Complaint:
The
Complainant has filed the present Complaint under Section 18 of the RTI Act
(hereinafter ‘the Act’), with the Commission, contending that certain
categories of document including the manuals mandated under Section 4 (1) (b)
of the Act 2005, should be available in hard copy at the school. It
is further contended that these documents should be available for inspection suo moto, as the Education Department
of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi runs and maintain a large number of
schools in the city, they should have all the mandated information mentioned in
Section 4, in hard copy at the school premise for the benefit of the
beneficiary community. This will be of immense help for them in ensuring
transparency and accountability of the functioning of schools. He has forwarded
a list of documents that should be available for inspection and the request is
reproduced below:-
1.
Admission
records
2.
Students’
attendance records
3.
Teachers’
attendance records
4.
Budget
Allocations, Sanction issued and Expenditure incurred
5.
Expenditure
on Educational Tours, Mid Day Meals, V.K.S/SMC, Sanitation, and CEP heads.
6.
Records
of disbursements made to students on account of Scholarships, Uniforms, Books,
and all other incentives given under any scheme.
7.
Copies
of Circulars/Notifications/Orders received from Education Department &
other Departments/Authorities from time to time.
8.
Various
Registers like inspection Register, Visitor Register, Movement Register
9.
General
Inspection of the infrastructural facilities – like drinking water, toilets,
classrooms etc.
Relevant
Facts emerging during Hearing:
The
following were present:-
Appellant: Mr. Saurabh Sharma and Ms.
Aheli Chowdhury.
Respondent: Mrs. Kanta Rani Kumar,
ADE; Dr. Chandra Bhan, DDE (Coordination); Municipal Corporation of Delhi
The
Commission has heard the Respondents and the Appellant. The Respondents state
that the admission records can be made available for inspection, as well as the
student’s attendance. The teacher’s attendance records/register is also
available. Budget allocations are at the HQ and Zonal Level, the budget
sanctioned to the schools and the expenditure therein is available at the
school level. For educational tours and mid-day meal can be made
available for inspection at the school. The records for PTA are also maintained
at the school. It is further stated that for sanitation, only one staff is
deployed. Records of disbursements made to students on account of
Scholarships, Uniforms, Books which are free of cost, and all other incentives
for winter clothes/shoes etc given under any scheme are also available. Copies
of Circulars/Notifications/Orders received from Education Department &
other Departments/Authorities from time to time are sent directly to the
schools and should be available there. Various Registers like inspection
Register, Visitor Register, Movement Register are also at the school level.
Inspections are done once a year and also surprise inspection records are also
available. General Inspection of the infrastructural facilities – like drinking
water, toilets, classrooms, black boards etc are undertaken through a specific
proforma which covers a variety of areas, this record is available. In addition
the Respondents also state that there are also records of complaints made by
Principal/incharge of each school to senior authorities.
Section
4 (1) (a) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, which is a mandatory
obligation, reads as -“maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a
manner and the form which facilitates the right to information under this Act
and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerised are,
within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerised
and connected through a network all over the country on different systems so
that access to such records is facilitated”. The Commission appreciates that the
Department has made improvements and is moving towards better
transparency.
The
Right to Information is a fundamental right of the citizens which has been
codified by the RTI act, No. 22 of 2005. The act envisions that all citizens
shall receive information primarily by suo motodisclosures by various public
authorities as prescribed by section (4) of the
act.
Disclosures in accordance with the said Section are crucial to ensure
transparency and accountability in institutions. This would reduce the
load of RTI Applications being filed with each institution as information would
be freely available to citizens and they would not have to apply for it. It
further envisages that citizens would be required to specifically ask for
information under section (6) only in a few cases. Citizens have been demanding
that certain information is essential to them and should be available
proactively in form of public notice boards, display boards etc. The Commission
feels that certain information which is essential for public safety should be
published proactively.
Decision:
The
Complaint is allowed.
In
view of the aforesaid and from the facts before it, the Commission under the
powers vested in it by section 19 (8) (a) of the RTI act, hereby directs the
following:-
The
Following categories of documents shall be available for inspection from the
last working day of October 2011, pertaining to each particular school for the
on-going academic session.
1.
Admission
records
2.
Students’
attendance records
3.
Teachers’
attendance records
4.
Budget
Allocations, Sanction issued and Expenditure incurred
5.
Expenditure
on Educational Tours, Mid Day Meals, V.K.S/SMC, Sanitation,
6.
Records
of disbursements made to students on account of Scholarships, Uniforms, Books,
and all other incentives given under any scheme.
7.
Copies
of Circulars/Notifications/Orders received from Directorate of Education &
other Departments/Authorities from time to time, which are available with the
concerned school.
8.
Various
Registers like inspection Register, Visitor Register, Movement Register,
Complaint File
1.
All
schools of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi will have the above noted
documents/registers available for inspection by citizens on the last working
day of each month, from 10.30 AM to 12.30 PM for First/Morning/General Shift
and 3.30 PM to 5.30 PM for the Second/Evening shift schools respectively. This
information regarding inspection timings shall be available on the notice
boards of all schools.
1.
A
sign board of appropriate dimension shall be installed, mentioning the Name(s),
designation(s), contact details including the office address/room number, as
the case may be who can be contacted for inspecting records including the
inspection timings as mentioned in point 1 above. No acronym/abbreviation should be
used.
This information shall be inscribed in Hindi and shall be installed at a
location having maximum public view at the concerned school. The same shall
also be published on the website of the Corporation also.
The
Additional Commissioner (Education), shall send a consolidated report of compliance
of the above directions to this Commission by 15thNovember 2011. The report may be sent to
rtimonitoring@gmail.com, with a copy to the Complainant.
This
decision is announced in open chamber.
Notice
of this decision be given free of cost to the parties.
Shailesh Gandhi
Information Commissioner
8th September 2011
