Whispers Forum

Is civil service any longer a matter of pride? If a chief minister can call the highest ranking civil servant to his official residence and surround him with “goondas” (the SC had used the term. Besides, our best legislation is Anti-Goonda Act!) and beat him and the judiciary smiling at the fun going on, is civil service left with the dignity of a “service” at all? Civil servants make sacrifices in public service that is best among all other wings, because they put their neck on the chopping block for a pittance called salary, suffer politicians and ire of the judiciary too.
M L Gupta

Inclusion of Asaduddin Owaisi in one of the Indian delegations that is travelling abroad to brief countries about Operation Sindoor is not surprising. Owaisi has been most vocal in criticising the government on many issues including Waqf Amendment Bill. But he stood firmly with the government during Operation Sindoor and launched all-out attack on Pakistan after the ghastly Pahalgam terror attack. A section of people also believe that he is BJP's B-team since his party cuts Muslim votes, which ultimately benefits BJP. However, there can be differing opinions about the outspoken AIMIM chief.
Yogesh Mathur

The applicant sought for information from Bank of Baroda about freezing of his Saving account and related information. The PIO denied the information claiming it as exempt from disclosure under section 24 of the Right to Information Act and harped on the exempt status of Anti-Corruption Bureau of the State of Gujarat as per relevant notification during personal hearing before the CIC. The CIC took grave exception to the absurd and grossly misleading reply and observed that the Bank of Baroda has cited Section 24 of the RTI Act as though it is an exempted organization and the same is unacceptable and is considered as a grave violation of the provisions of the RTI Act without any reasonable cause. A notice was issued to the then PIO why action should not be initiated against him under Section 20 of the RTI Act for providing a grossly wrong and misleading reply. The CIC further observed that since the RTI queries specifically sought for information related to freezing of his bank account, which is very much the domain of the bank in terms of being the concerned record holder and not CBI and even if the record holder was solely CBI, then there should have been a transfer of the RTI Application as per Section 6(3) of the RTI Act. There is nothing contained in the RTI Act that empowers the PIO of the Respondent bank to claim exemption on behalf of CBI and even if that were the case, the PIO did not even bother to specify the same in his reply. A notice was also issued to the PIO to explain as to why the reply of the then PIO was being mindlessly endorsed even at this stage, impliedly sharing the onus of having provided the wrong & misleading reply. The CIC directed the PIO to now provide a revised point-wise reply to the instant RTI Application.
Comments
It is a classic case which indicates ignorance of the PIO about the provisions of the RTI Act. All readers are strongly advised to read these case laws to learn about the common mistakes which may render them liable for penalty.
Citation: Nilesh R Gupta v. Bank of Baroda, CIC/BKOBD/A/2024/620207; Date of Decision: 06.03.2025
Dr Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is a RTI Consultant currently working with IIM Vishakhapatnam. She has co-authored the books PIO’s Guide to RTI and Right to Information – Law and Practice. Her weekly article is being published since 2008 on this site. She offers consultancy on RTI matters and third party audit to individuals / organisations. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation at the link https://www.rtifoundationofindia.com

The conspiracy of the gangs of traitors and deep state operators to target India, especially the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, by engineering the Pahalgam incident has proved rather too costly for them. They have destroyed Donald Trump and hurt American interests for the rest of his term as POTUS. They have harmed Xi Jinping irreparably. They have ruined Erdogan terribly which they had not imagined. The sheer scale of damage to these people and interests of their countries is so much that they will take months to assess. It has benefited India as the people have seen the reality of foreign powers whose policy is that “War Is Trade”. Only Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s graph has risen further.
M L Gupta