The Tribune: Amritsar: Friday, March 23, 2018.
The
Government Medical College here has demanded Rs 30000 for providing information
regarding post-mortem of patients suffering from mental illness, alleges
Rajinder Sharma, a local RTI activist.
Sharma had
filed an RTI application seeking information about the number of autopsies
conducted on patients sent by Dr Vidya Sagar Institute of Mental health here
during the last seven years. He had also asked for information regarding the
causes of death of all these patients.
The medical
college forwarded the RTI application to its forensic department and directed
it to furnish the information to the applicant. However, the department in its
response to Public Information Officer (PIO) of the college wrote, “The
information which the applicant has sought will be found after the scrutiny of
voluminous record for which many days by the department staff will be taken.
So, it would disproportionately divert the resources of the department thereby
attracting Section 7(9) of RTI Act, 2005. So, to provide the asked information
the applicant is required to deposit Rs 30,000 provisionally, which will be
adjusted after calculating the final charges when the information is
completed.”
The letter
further reads, “To seek the information in the minimal possible time and with
minimum charges it will be appropriate if the information is supplied to
applicant by Director Dr Vidya Sagar Institute of Mental Health.”
“I have
complained that hefty charges have been demanded just to discourage citizens
from seeking information,” he said. The fee for information could be charged on
the basis of number of pages in the reply. The department has invoked a clause
which is not relevant to his application in any form, he added. He said he
would file an appeal with State Information Commission as already there has
been a delay of two months in supplying the information.
Section 7 (9)
of the RTI Act reads, “An information shall ordinarily be provided in the form
in which it is sought unless it would disproportionately divert the resources
of the public authority or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation
of the record in question”.
RTI activist PC Bali said, “As per the law,
the PIO cannot calculate cost on assumptions. The cost could be demanded within
10 days of receipt of application and after that the PIO has to supply the
information free of cost.”