IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.13686 of 2009 Date of Decision: 14.09.2009 Om Parkash Singla Petitioner Versus State Information Commissioner Haryana and others Respondents CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASBIR SINGH Present: Mr.G.C.Shahpuri, Advocate for the petitioner ….. Jasbir Singh, J.(Oral) This writ petition has been filed with a prayer that directions be to the respondents, especially, respondent No.3, to supply complete information, sought by the petitioner, vide his application dated 3.10.2008. Record reveals that the application was taken up by respondent No.3 and available information was supplied to the petitioner. He was not satisfied. He failed in the first appeal. Second appeal was filed before the State Information Commission, Haryana (respondent No.1). Respondent No.1 looked into grievance of the petitioner and then came to a definite conclusion that delay in supplying the information was not intentional and the same was caused on account of the circumstances beyond control of the Public Information Officer. When disposing of appeal of the petitioner, it was observed as under by respondent No.1:- Civil Writ Petition No.13686 of 2009 “After carefully examining the record of this case and after hearing both the parties the Commission is of the considered opinion that since the original record is lying with the Hon’ble Punjab & Haryana High Court at Chandigarh in CWP No.5214/97, titled as Hazara Ram s. State, according to letter no.20127, dated 12.5.1997, so the information as desired by the appellant could not be provided by the respondent- department and hence there is no malafide intention on their part. In this case the First Appellant Authority is also failed to decide the appeal of the appellant within stipulated period. On the point of delay of 25 days, the commission is also of the opinion that the Respondent-SPIO is not personally responsible as in this case, the information was not available with them. Therefore, the appeal of the appellant is disposed of with the following directions:- 1. The respondent-department is directed to make sincere efforts for obtaining the relevant record from the Hon’ble Punjab & Haryana High Court at Chandigarh and as and when they receive the record, they should provide the information to the appellant free of cost within then days. In case at that time, the appellant will not satisfied, he is having the liberty to approach the First Appellant Authority. However, the Respondent-SPIO is wanted to be more careful in future while processing the applications under RTI Act, 2005. 2 Civil Writ Petition No.13686 of 2009 2. The First Appellate Authority is advised to perform his duties strictly as per the provisions of the RTI Act, 2005 and decided the appeals received by him within stipulated period while passing the speaking orders after giving full opportunities of hearing to the parties.” It has been noted, as a matter of fact, that the original record is lying with this Court in CWP No.5214 of 1997 and in view of that, it was not possible for the authorities to supply information to the petitioner. It has been further observed that the respondent –department shall make efforts to get relevant record from this Court and on receipt thereof, the requisite information be supplied to the petitioner. This Court feels that the order passed is perfectly justified. No case is made out for interference. Dismissed. 14.09.2009 (Jasbir Singh) gk Judge 3