A full bench of the Himachal Pradesh state information commission (SIC) has ruled that in every file noting the writer has to write his full name along with his designation. This would end the struggle to decode the names and designations of the writers of the file notings.

The order was passed in the Dev Ashish Bhattacharya v/s deputy secretary (revenue), government of Himachal Pradesh case on September 23.

Background

An RTI application was filed by me on October 11, 2012 to get the complete file notings pertaining to the purchase of the tea garden in Himachal Pradesh by Prashant Bhushan, a noted lawyer and an activist of Aam Admi Party.

The file notings were sought from the date of the initiation to the finalization of the process and approval of the sale of the tea garden land to the Kumud Bhushan Education Society of which Prashant Bhushan and his wife are the members. Along with the file notings I also asked to decode the names of all the officials who signed the file notings of the file.

The PIO informed me that since the file was in process from 2006 to 2010 and almost all the officials, who signed the notings, are transferred, therefore, the names of the file noting writer cannot be given. I challenged this reply by PIO by way of first appeal. Surprisingly, the additional chief secretary (revenue) also supported the version of the PIO and rejected my appeal.

In the mean time the new government of Himachal Pradesh instituted an inquiry into the said tea garden sale. I wondered how the inquiry would be done and accountability would be fixed if the names of the file noting writers are not decoded.

Keeping in view this development I filed the second appeal in the state information commission, which was referred to the full bench of the commission.

My main argument was based on a famous dictum of Chanakya that "No king can rule with anonymity". I believed that the relevance of the said dictum is still valid with the government today acting as the king.

Therefore, no official can write the file notings in anonymity. Since every file noting is nothing but the judgment, therefore, it should be clearly and unambiguously attributed to the writer of the notings.

The commission observed that “The main objective of the RTI Act is that every public authority and its instrumentalities function in the discharge of their day to day duties in a transparent manner, to ensure accountability of each of its functionaries and to provide corruption free governance. In case there is no system of recording names and designations of the respective officials/officers it is the failure of the public authority to have not provided for such a system.

Every public authority was expected and duty bound to streamline its record keeping system in tune with the spirit of transparency, accountability and informed citizenry as per the mandate of the provisions of section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005."

After this the commission was pleased to rule that “The revenue department is directed as per the provisions of section 19 (8) (a) of the RTI Act 2005 to issue appropriate directions to ensure in future that every official records his/her name and designation while recording notings on the file".

This ruling of the HP SIC is implementable in the entire country till it is reversed by any of the high courts or the supreme court. The chief secretary of Himachal Pradesh has now issued directions to all the departments of the state to abide by the ruling of the commission in letter and spirit.

I am sending the copy of this ruling to the DOP&T also, which is the nodal agency of the RTI Act, to circulate the same to all the central ministries and the states for its implementation.

Era of confusion in the file notings is over and now every citizen of the country would now be able to recognize the officials who record the file notings.