Files go ‘missing’, CIC smells a rat

NEW DELHI: Can mice or fire destroying files be an adequate excuse not to give information under the RTI Act? That’s a question that the central information commission has asked officials in response to a complaint filed by an RTI applicant who claimed that he had been denied information by the department concerned on the basis that the files were “missing”.
The RTI applicant, Virendra Singh Jafna, had asked for information from the Union ministry of tribal affairs with specific file numbers, regarding his tenure as an officer in the ministry of social justice and empowerment 20 years ago.The public information officer, however, claimed the files were missing.
Information commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu was scathing in his response to the complaint, and cited numerous instances of files going ‘missing’ due to mice or other causes such as fire. Acharyulu even cited the provision for keeping a cat while highlighting the lax attitude of department officials and file handlers or clerks towards keeping records.
Acharyulu came down hard on the public information officers concerned for shirking responsibilities, and the lack of coordination among them. “The RTI application was kicked like football from one to another. No PIO is taking initiative to co-ordinate with the other and solve this problem. Instead, they have build up huge files with the voluminous correspondence leading to nowhere,” said Acharyulu in his order, adding that files cannot just go missing.
The information commissioner also asked the department of personnel and training, the nodal agency for implementation of Right to Information Act, to develop a comprehensive set of guidelines to handle the issue of missing files, through better preservation and retrieval systems.
“Specify steps (need) to be taken up to retrace the untraceable,” said Acharyulu, adding “explain steps to be taken to prevent the phenomenon of missing of files.”
The order also directs the department of personnel and training to ensure appropriate disciplinary or legal action against deliberate “destruction of records or unauthorised removal of permanent or significant records etc”.