SHRAWAN KUMAR Vs. STATE CHIEF INFORMATION COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition has been filed for quashing the order dtd. 26/2/2015 (Annexure-11 to the writ petition) passed by the Acting Chief Information Commissioner, Ranchi (the respondent no. 1) in second appeal being Appeal no. 2860 of 2011 preferred by the respondent no. 2 which was communicated to the petitioner vide memo no. 4559 dtd. 14/5/2015 issued under the signature of Under Secretary, Jharkhand State Information Commission, Ranchi, whereby penalty of Rs.25,000.00 has been imposed upon him under Sec. 20(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (in short, "the Act, 2005") to be deducted from his salary in five equal monthly instalments w.e.f. March, 2015.

(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that Sanjeev Kumar Khandelwal (the respondent no. 2) had sought certain information from the Public Information Officer-cum-Executive Officer, Nagar Parishad, Giridih vide his application dtd. 4/8/2011 which was not provided to him within statutory period for which he preferred first appeal before the Deputy Commissioner-cum-First Appellate Authority, Giridih vide his application dtd. 10/9/2011. Thereafter, the required information not having been furnished, the respondent no. 2 preferred second appeal before the Chief Information Commissioner, Jharkhand State Information Commission, Ranchi on 30/10/2011 which was registered as Appeal No. 2860 of 2011. Subsequently, a notice was issued to the then Public Information Officer-cum- Executive Officer, Nagar Parishad, Giridih vide letter no. 2310 dtd. 10/3/2012.

(3.) It is further submitted that the petitioner had taken charge of Executive Officer, Nagar Parishad, Giridih on 12/7/2013 and he came to know about the pendency of the second appeal before the respondent no. 1 for the first time on 20/11/2013 when the order dtd. 4/11/2013 as contained in memo no. 9282 dtd. 13/11/2013 was communicated to him.