IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No. 857 of 2010 Date of Decision: 5.3.2010 Kuldeep Singh ....Petitioner. Versus State Information Commissioner and others ...Respondents. CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AJAY KUMAR MITTAL. PRESENT: Mr. R.P. Kansal, Advocate for the petitioner. AJAY KUMAR MITTAL, J. By way of present petition filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for issuance of a writ in the nature of certiorari for quashing the order dated 19.11.2009 (Annexure P-7) passed by respondent No.1 whereby a penalty of Rs.25,000/- was imposed under Section 20 (1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (in short “the Act”). Briefly, it may be noticed that respondent No.3 made an application to the petitioner on 21.10.2008 for supply of certain information under the Act. The said information was received by the petitioner from respondent No.2-Government Senior Secondary School, Uppli Chathe, District Sangrur, on 18.11.2008. However, the information was supplied to respondent No.3 on 14.5.2009. Respondent No.1 has recorded that there had been a delay of about 160 days in sending the information to respondent No.3. The amount of penalty had been calculated at the rate of Rs.250/- per day which CWP No. 857 of 2010 -2- comes to Rs.40,000/- but the same was restricted to Rs.25,000/- as provided in Section 20 of the Act. On repeated queries being put to the learned counsel for the petitioner to explain the time taken from 18.11.2008 when the relevant information was received by the petitioner from respondent No.2 till 14.5.2009 when the same was supplied to respondent No.3, no explanation much less a satisfactory one has been furnished by him. After hearing the learned counsel for the petitioner and in view of the above, this Court is satisfied that no ground for its interference in the order passed by respondent No.1 is called for. Accordingly, the present writ petition is dismissed in limine. March 5, 2010 (AJAY KUMAR MITTAL) gbs JUDGE