The Central Information Commission has issued a show cause notice to the NDMC for not complying with the commission’s order.

On January 1, 2010, the commission directed the NDMC to provide its policy for display of the advertisement hoardings in Connaught Place and Sarojini Nagar area to an RTI applicant within 15 days. The applicant was given details of only the Connaught place area.

“The delay on your part in providing the information amounts to wilful disobedience of the commissioner’s order and also raises reasonable doubt that the denial of information may be malafide”, said the CIC's January 27 order. A
Delhi-based lawyer Piyush Jain had sought the details. The details are to be given to him by February 16.

In September 2009, Jain filed an RTI application demanding to know the policy regarding advisements, names of shopkeepers who had put up illegal hoardings and action taken against such shopkeepers.

“The information was not satisfactory. Names of the shopkeepers and the number of shops having illegal hoardings were not provided,” said Jain. He also pointed out that contrary to the reply, Connaught Place had several hoardings which had been put up without authorisation. NDMC Public Information Officer Vinay Kaushik acknowledged the mistake during the hearing before CIC.

“It is evident that the public authority is happily allowing shopkeepers to display boards in contravention of the law. The commission hopes that the enforcement brach enforces the law instead of finding smart ways of obfuscating the information from the RTI applicants”, the order said.