ANAND BHUSHAN Vs. R A HARITASH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Intra Court appeal impugns the order dated 26 th May, 2010 of the learned Single Judge allowing W.P.(C) No.3670/2010 preferred by the respondent. The respondent, at the relevant time was the Dy. Director of Education and Public Information Officer of the Directorate of Education, Govt. of NCT of Delhi. The respondent had filed the writ petition impugning the order dated 14 th April, 2010 of the Central Information Commission (CIC) imposing maximum penalty of Rs.25,000/- on the respondent, under Section 20(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 for the delay of over 100 days in furnishing the information to the appellant. The Chief Secretary, Govt. of Delhi was directed to recover the said amount from the salary of the respondent @ Rs. 5,000/- per month.

(2.) The learned Single Judge, vide order impugned in this appeal, reduced the penalty amount to Rs. 2,500/- recoverable from the salary of the respondent in ten equal monthly installments of Rs. 250/- per month. The learned Single Judge held that the question of penalty is essentially between the Court and the respondent and did not really concern the appellant who has been provided with the information. Yet another reason given for so reducing the penalty was that the respondent had taken charge of the said post 14 days after the subject RTI application of the appellant had been filed.

(3.) Notice of this appeal was issued primarily on the ground, that the learned Single Judge, being of the view aforesaid, had decided the writ petition even without issuing notice to the appellant, though the appellant had been impleaded as respondent in the writ petition. Hearing in this appeal was commenced on 11 th March, 2011 when the following order was passed:-