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Sports Authority told to display information

Prashant Pandey

Direction follows an appeal made to CIC

NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission (CIC) hasdirected the Sports Authority of India to display information regarding its public information officer and appellate authority on its premises within two months.

The commission also directed it to provide the information sought by an appellant free of cost.

In his appeal to the CIC, K. Arumugam, a resident of Khirki Extension, submitted that he was stopped from photographing the statue of Major Dhyan Chand at the National Stadium here over six months ago. He wanted to find out if there was any specific reason for not permitting him to do so.

Mr. Arumugam sought to file an application under the RTI Act with the SAI. However, the SAI could neither enlighten him about the rules and regulations nor offer details regarding its information officers. He could not even find out where to submit the fee and the application. Letters to top officials and the Ministry in June too did not help.

Mr. Arumugam then appealed to the CIC. The appeal was heard on November 27 and disposed of this Monday.

The SAI argued before the CIC that it had designated officials as chief public information officers (CPIOs) and appellate authority (AA) and that it had posted the information on the website. However, it was negotiating with the National Informatics Centre for a new website and were using a website maintained by another agency. The SAI produced a hard copy of the information displayed in this regard.

The Commission observed that it was a peculiar case wherein the appellant only wanted the information as to how and where the application fee was to be remitted. "SAI could have displayed a notice on the premises indicating the name, address, telephone numbers of the CPIO/AA," observed Information Commissioner Padma Balasubramanian.

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