Whispers Forum

The appellant sought the copies of all performance reviews carried between Dec. 2012 -March 2014, copies of disagreements submitted and related information from the IAF which was denied u/s 8(1) (e) and (j) of the RTI Act. The applicant submitted that he is not asking for the Appraisal report but the copies of the Performance Review and that he is privy to but does not have any copy of the same. It was informed that the information asked by the applicant belongs to a period when the AR procedure was not completely online. The CIC observed that the information was denied under Sec. 8(1)(e) and (j) of the RTI Act in a blanket manner without proper scrutiny of each and every point. The CIC directed that the performance review from Dec. 2012 -March 2014 should be provided to the appellant under the RTI even if not generally given, as he is already privy to the same. The copy of his own disagreement note should also be given. Similarly, all other points onwards should be studied again vis-a –vis the discussions during the hearing and the appellant’s recent submissions and a proper point wise reply be given.
Comments
In the matter of Dev Dutt v. Union of India, the Hon’ble Supreme Court had ruled that the Appraisal report of defense personnel are not liable to be disclosed under RTI Act.
Citation: Kunal Kumra v. Directorate of Personal Services, Air Head Quarters in File no.: - CIC/IAIRF/A/2019/134503, Date of Decision: 08/07/202
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is an expert on RTI matters and has co-authored the books RIGHT TO INFORMATION - LAW AND PRACTICE and PIO’s guide to RTI. Apart from her weekly article here, her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link: www.rtifoundationofindia.com

My neighbour and recently retired promotee IRS (retd as ACIT) says this is so because now all powers have been taken away by the Govt from senior IRS officers like Commissioners and above and given to working level ACITs and Dy CITs who are overloaded with work. These senior IRS officers are now left with powers to spoil the ACR of their subordinates or to rate these ACRs high only and that too from places far away from their home towns. They have already completed 20 years of service and pension is due to them. They leave the job and join private sector companies in their home towns.
Ashok
Appoint CS on the basis of seniority alone
Cabinet Secretary (CS) should be appointed on the basis of seniority and not gender basis.
R K Upadhyay

Annual excise auction is always a big event in any state particularly for earning big revenue for the state. That year, more than four decades back, it happened that in a particular excise division, the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner (DETC,), was transferred on the very day the excise auction was to be conducted. However, he remained in charge of auctioning of Bhang (hemp)only. Throughout his life, thereafter, he lived with the stigma of nomenclature of' Collector Bhang', as it had never happened before or after that. Under the new DETC, the scenario changed drastically. It is strange that persons earning crores, having affluence in the society, when participated in the excise auction, their short names would fly around. Tita, bitta, kuku, pappu, gogi, goga, tiku etc made bids of crores. Since, the auction had turned highly competitive, in auction of one group, the contest became very hot and keen. The reserve price of one group was two crores. The auctioneer officer announced, ''2 crores.'' Immediately, one short statured boy's high decibel voice echoed in the Hall. His bid said, ''one hundred rupees more (sau rupye utte )''.Hearing this everyone in the hall laughed loudly. But that boy said, ''There is no rule to bar me to bid like that (istran boli den vich mere te koi pabandi nahi)''.The other bidders increased the bids in lakhs,but that boy remained in the contest by each time bidding, ''Sau rupye utte.'' The bid went upto 4 crores and was announced in that boy's favour, in''4 crores and one hundred rupees.''
The pattern of campaigning in any state election, has almost become uniform. Earlier, the political players will appear in every nook and corner of the state just some days before the campaigning. But now, they have already started the action to catch public eye. If some party announces free ghee, the other announces tea and sugar in addition. If one party says that will give five kg pulses free, the other would announce six kg and so on and so fourth. If one party announces 300 units free to all, the other would announces 350/400 units free. The bidders have started appearing in all areas of the state like mushrooms, earthworms, in the rains and like moths in the twilight after the rains. They seem like bidders of peoples' aspirations and sentiments.
There was one group of vends in a particular district, which was continuously purchased by one person for almost a decade. It was talk in the department that the contractor had very high contacts and so remained a liquor baron. Before one auction, he played very arrogant and the honest DETC taught him lesson of life. He prepared two more groups secretly to bid for that group and also resisted pressure from his seniors and the minister. Sensing trouble for himself, the contractor started spreading rumours that the officer had asked for a Maruti car from him in bribe. In that auction, his group had to pay 75 lakhs more than the expected auction. His detractors would later on tell him, ''You should have given him one Maruti, instead of paying the price of 40 Marutis. ''He would grin and exhibit false teeth at this..After getting some units of electricity free, the people will have to pay the price of 40 Marutis later on, by way of loot of the natural resources and public order, as has been happening for a long time.
Surinderjit Singh Sandhu

The decision of the Government is a welcome step towards making the Backward classes the benefits of 27% reservation. The need of the hour is that the percolating benefits are not gobbled up by the so called creamy layers BCs following malpractice of getting certificates of non-creamy layer BCs. It has happened and is happening that the well-offs get the benefits extended with holy intentions to the needy by the Government. W.r.t. increasing the UG course for additional one year, it will simply discourage the students to take up the medical as a careers when five and half years are now taken in getting MBBS degree. It will not be a good idea.
Devendra Mishra
Time for Woman Cabinet Secretary
There has never been any woman Cabinet Secretary in India. Time is now very ripe to make a lady 1985 IAS officer, who has two years of service, as Cabinet Secretary. Is Mr. Modi the supporter of women in the 'national bhaghidari' listening?
BBS

Normalisation Process being adopted in Competitive Examinations by Staff Selection Commission (SSC). The moot question is as to why the normalisation process has been adopted in assessing the ability of the candidates in a transparent manner. But it has been observed that the normalisation process has not been clearly spelt out by SSC in their notification. There is also a lack of transparency in the process. In order to make the examination clean, it is submitted that a wide survey amongst the candidates of examinations may be carried out and based on the recommendations a concrete and pragmatic view may kindly be taken safeguard the interests of the candidates at large. In order to meet the rising number of candidates in the examinations, better infrastructures on a single day instead of holding different papers on variable dates may be considered. If it is not possible for a single agency to provide necessary infrastructure on a single day, more companies may be allowed to provide infrastructures necessary for the examination on a single day. By this way, there would not be any need for normalisation process. As it used to be done by SSC and presently being followed by UPSC in its examination. Normalisation p;rocess is like that denying the legitimate right of employment to the deserving candidates, who even otherwise scored the marks above the cut-off.
Ved Prakash Sharma

Submission to Hon'ble Finance Minister Income tax new e-filing portal was launched in first week of June, 2021 with many added features to make t more tax payers friendly and easy to file the returns. Now the portal is operational and is reported that more than 1 lakh returns filed each day on new IT portal. Now the portal should be used efficiently and effectively to meet the deadline. How it can be achieved professionally. ITR1 is simplest 2 page form and easy to file and takes minimum resources of portal as well tax payers friendly. ITR2 seems to be most difficult and lengthy 27 pages form is very complex to fill the table 112A due to factor like grand fathering, indexation, equity oriented or debt MF etc without help of CA. ITR2 will consume more resources of portal and tax authorities and also difficult for tax payers. Considering more than 20 million tax payers are filing their returns using ITR1. Is there any solution without loss of revenue to Govt. to make the process faster and easy. Yes one of the options is to give option to tax payers to fill up IITR1 instead of ITR2 if there is no tax liabilities on account of LTCG in case of transfer of equity shares or equity oriented MF if otherwise eligible to file ITR1. The LTCG value can ne shown less than 1 lakh under exempt income as per Sec 112A. Filing of ITR1 number will increase. The process will increase the efficiency of not only portal but also of tax administration and will be tax payers friendly which is top priority of Govt. This point can be deliberated at appropriate level and decision taken. This will give big relief to large number of tax payers like salaried class, pensioners, house wives and others without any loss of revenue to Govt.. As far as data collection or availability of records are concerned, all the information or data is available with tax administration only data mining is required to fetch the required information. The information can also be obtained from the tax payers whenever tax authorities need it. To match number of DMAT accounts with ITR2 filing is not very relevant when all data is available with tax authorities. As portal is new, tax payers are not familiar with the new process of filing and may take some time to become conversant with the operation of new portal. When there is tax liability on account of LTCG, tax payers will file ITR2 only as there is no choice. This point of giving an option to tax payers to file ITR1 instead of ITR2 if there is no tax liability on account of LTCG on transfer of equity or equity oriented MF and if otherwise eligible to file ITR1 should be considered favourably to speed up the process of filing and tax payers friendly.
Naveen
No extension or re-employment for retired civil servants
I fully agree with Rajiv. No extension or re-employment for retired civil servants
S Gopal

The Appellant sought a copy of his service book which was not provided to him by the then CPIO. He further contested that his service book was available in the Institute at time of filing of RTI Application, however, perhaps it appears to have been misplaced from the records or is available with the other Institute. The CPIO, enlightened the CIC with the fact that there 28 Institutes including that of Appellant’s Institute which are governed by Ranlaxmi Adarsh Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya and get grants in aid. The PIO submitted that as on date the Appellant is himself working as an acting Principal as also he is the designated CPIO of the concerned Institute from where he has sought a copy of his service book. Upon a query from the CIC, the Appellant answered in affirmative that he is the designated CPIO in the said Institute. The CIC held that the Appellant being the current designated CPIO of the Institute can call for the service book/ record of his own from the Institute itself which is the custodian of his service record. The CIC directed the CPIO, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan to trace the records and procure a copy of the Appellant’s own Service book from the office records of the Institute. In the event of the service book not available with the said Institute, the CPIO, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan may find out and procure the same from the concerned Institute/ record holder where it is available.
Comments
Copy of the service book cannot be denied to the person to whom it pertains to under section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act.
Citation: Anil anand v. Shri Ranlaxmi Adarsh Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya in File No : CIC/RSSAN/A/2019/160412 & CIC/RSSAN/A/2019/659686, Date of Decision : 07/07/2021
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is an expert on RTI matters and has co-authored the books RIGHT TO INFORMATION - LAW AND PRACTICE and PIO’s guide to RTI. Apart from her weekly article here, her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link: www.rtifoundationofindia.com

The government's announcement of 27% reservation for OBCs in all India quota for medical seats has brought great relief and cheer for the OBCs. It is worth pondering as to who amongst them will garner the seats. Most likely they may be from the well-off students who could afford the costly coaching etc leaving out a very large group of economically weaker sections amongst them. A plausible solution is to do away with NEET examination and allot seats through a computerised lottery system. This will at least ensure equal opportunity for all the students regardless of their economic status. But this should be followed by extending the course concerned , at least the undergraduate programme, by one year. The first year should be used to conduct remedial and bridge courses to bring all the students to come up to a defined standard, including discipline, aptitude, motivation for putting in hours of long hard work etc.
Those who do not measure up should be asked to leave. This arrangement, while giving equal chance to every student will also ensure that only those who can cope with the rigours of a medical education will continue.
Raghavan

No government has done enough to solve the Assam-Mizoram border dispute. Boundary disputes between Mizoram and Assam are not new. The two sides have argued where exactly the line falls on a 193-square-mile strip of land since the 1980s, when Mizoram and three other Indian states were carved out of Assam, a sprawling state that borders Bhutan and Bangladesh. Had the governments shown their resolve to solve the dispute, things would have not gone so volatile. Still there is time for the governments concerned to wake from their slumber.
Girish

Congress party is not that weak as it appears to be. It still has its core base intact to a great extent and it just needs a charismatic leader to uplift the party from ashes. But the problem is that neither the “crown prince” is himself ready to lead the party from the front nor is he allowing to let anyone else become the commander. The party has always risen from heavy political defeats in the past when it was written off (after defeats in 1977, 1989, 1998, 1999 etc.). But it has always risen from ashes like Phonics only because of its strong and foresighted leadership which is missing today. Now, the party has become a private limited company sort of thing and its leadership is like later Mughals. Mughal Emperor Shah Alam’s empire was from Delhi to Palam. Similarly the Congress Empire ranges from 10 Janpath (Sonia Gandhi’s official home) to Rahul Gandhi's residence. Yes, the party is in power in many states like MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Punjab etc. but Gandhi family has little or no control on regional satraps. To cap it all, Congress just needs a leader who is full time politician and who doesn't personally hates Modi and is willing to learn from Modi to defeat Modi.
Rajesh Kumar