SANJAY BHAGWATI Vs. VED PARKASH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Aggrieved by the judgment passed by the learned Writ Court, whereby the petition filed by respondent No. 1 came to be allowed and a penalty of Rs. 10,000/- and compensation of Rs.50,000/- have been imposed and ordered to be paid by the appellant and respondent No. 5 and action as per Sub-section (2) of Section 20 of the Right to Information Act has also been directed to be initiated against the appellant, the appellant has filed the instant Letters Patent Appeal.

(2.) Brief facts necessary for adjudication of this appeal are that respondent No. 1 filed an application before respondent No. 5 vide Annexure P-1 for supply of certain information. The same, in turn, was forwarded to the office of Block Development Officer, Dharamshala, being manned by the appellant on 30.03.2010. The Panchayat Sahayak, Gram Panchayat, Khanyara informed the office of the appellant that photocopies of the documents were being supplied to respondent No.1/petitioner and the same were annexed with the letter dated 23.04.2010. Since, the documents sought for by the petitioner which were copies of applications dated 19.05.2006, 20.05.2006 and 16/17.05.2006 were not supplied to him, therefore, he submitted an application to the Block Development Officer, Dharamshala on 29.04.2010 stating therein that the information supplied was not acceptable to him and he also sought address of the next appellate authority. Thereafter, respondent No. 1/petitioner was informed vide letter dated 01.05.2010 that the information sought by him is also being supplied by annexing letter dated 30.04.2010 whereby the Pradhan, Gram Panchayat, Khanyara informed the office of the appellant that the record of the Panchayat was verified, but the aforesaid letters dated 19.05.2006, 20.05.2006 and 16/16.05.2006 were not found in the record.

(3.) Being aggrieved by the incorrect and misleading information supplied to him, respondent No.1/petitioner filed an appeal before the A.D.C.-cum-Appellate Authority vide Annexure P-6 on 31.05.2006. It was specifically stated therein that the information supplied by the office of the appellant was not correct. The matter was examined by the SEBPO, Dharamshala and he submitted the copy of the reply of the Pradhan, Gram Panchayat, Khanyara, a copy whereof also supplied to respondent No. 1/petitioner on 17.07.2010, on which date the case came to be closed.