(1.) THE petitioner was an Administrative Officer in the Bhagalpur Electric Supply Area of the Bihar State Electricity Board. He was designated as the Public Information Officer under the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005. It appears that an employee sought certain information while petitioner was working as such. The information was sought on 6.8.2007. It is not in dispute that on 4.9.2007 that is even before expiry of 30 days from the date information was sought, petitioner was transferred and accordingly he ceased to be the Public Information Officer. It appears that another person was then designated as Public Information Officer in the Board in place of the petitioner. The person, who had sought information was not given due information and as such he filed an appeal in the department itself, which was again a dead letter. Having failed to get the information, he then filed a second appeal, as contemplated under Section 19 of the Right to Information Act. When the Second appeal proceedings pending before the State Commission notices were issued by the Commission in name of the petitioner designating him as the Public Information Officer -cum - General Manager -cum -Chief Engineer, Bhagalpur Electric Supply Area, Bhagalpur. As petitioner had long since been transferred, as petitioner was never the General Manager -cum -Chief Engineer but merely an Administrative Officer notices remain un -responded, which has ultimately resulted in the penalty order, whereby petitioner was penalized by name a sum of Rs. 22,750/ - and thus coerced to pay the said amount. Petitioner then made two applications. One to the State Information Commission for recall of the order which was erroneously passed against him and secondly to the Bihar State Electricity Board for reimbursement, which was coerced to him to pay. As was usual, even though everyone now became aware that petitioner was not a Public Information Officer, whose conduct was being penalized, yet the Commission and the Board refused to undo the injustice meted out to the petitioner, which has brought the petitioner to this Court.
(2.) MR . Lalit Kishore, learned AAG -III appearing for the State Information Commission submits that Information Commission having passed the order of penalty became functus officio and they have no power to review. They could not recall the order passed earlier. There was no provision under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) permitting the Commission to review its order. Learned counsel for the Bihar State electricity Board, on the other hand, submits that the remedy of the petitioner was to get a refund from the Commission for a penalty wrongly imposed and paid. I have heard the matter and considered the same. With consent of parties, the writ petition is being disposed of at the stage of admission itself.
(3.) FIRST coming to the contention of the learned AAG -III with regard to the fact that under the RTI Act there is no power of review and that being so an order of penalty passed in terms of Section 20. of the said Act could not have been reviewed. In my considered view, the word 'review ' connotes two distinct actions, the one is procedural review and the other is substantive review. Procedural review is a power inherent in all authorities, Courts and Tribunals. It does not have to be conferred by any statute. It is a power to correct palpably erroneous orders passed on misapprehension of facts and circumstances. Whereas, the other being power of substantive review is review on merits on an error apparent on the fact of the record, for which statutory conferment of power is necessary. These distinctions are clearly brought about by the judgment of Apex Court in the case of Grindlays Bank Limited vs. Central Government Industrial Tribunal & Ors. since reported in AIR 1981 Supreme Court 606 and the relevant part is to be found thereof and is quoted hereunder: - "...The question whether a party must be heard before it is proceeded against is one of procedure and not of power in the sense in which the words are under in S. 11. The answer to the question is, therefore, to be found in sub -s. (1) of S. 11 and not in sub -s. (3) of S. 11. Furthermore, different considerations arise on review. The expression 'review ' is used in two distinct senses, namely, (1) a procedural review which is either inherent or implied in a Court of Tribunal to set aside a palpably erroneous order passed under a misapprehension by it, and (2) a review on merits when the error sought to be corrected is one of law and is apparent on the face of the record. It is in the latter sense that the Court in Narshi Thakershi 'scase held that no review lies on merits unless a statute specifically provides for it, obviously when a review is sought due to a procedural defect, the inadvertent error committed by the Tribunal must be corrected ex debito justitiae to prevent the abuse of its process, and such power inheres in every Court or Tribunal......"