Mr. S.K. Chandola, Public Information Officer/Addl. Principal Conservator of Forest, Planning and Financial Management vs Uttarakhand Information Commission and Others

B.S. Verma, J.—Heard Mr. P.C. Bisht, Brief Holder for the Petitioner and Mr. Vipul Sharma, Advocate appearing on behalf of the Respondents.

By means of this petition, the Petitioner has sought a writ in the nature of certiorari, quashing the impugned order dated 6-7-2010 passed by Information Commission, Uttarakhand in Appeal No. A(D) 2529 of 2010, contained in annexure No. 1 to the writ petition, whereby a penalty of Rs. 5,000/- was imposed upon the Public Information Officer/Petitioner.

Supplementary affidavit has been filed. In para-3 of the supplementary affidavit it is stated that notice dated 1-4-2010 was issued by Public Information Commission to the Petitioner and the Departmental Appellate Officer, requiring them to be present before the Commission on 13-05-2010, along with original record. The Petitioner/Public Information Officer had appeared before the Commission on 13-5-2010 and the Public Information Officer was directed to furnish the requisite information to the Respondent No. 3 within 15 days and case was listed on 06-07-2010 when the final impugned order was passed. In para-5 of the supplementary affidavit it has been admitted that no such reply/explanation was submitted by the Petitioner or departmental Appellate Officer before the Commission. Since no explanation was put forth before the appellate authority, therefore, the penalty was imposed.

In view of above, the Petitioner is given liberty to file reply of show cause notice before the Information Commissioner. The learned Information Commissioner, after considering the reply/explanation filed by the Petitioner/Public Information Officer, shall pass a fresh order.

Till the fresh order is passed by the Information Commissioner, the impugned M shall remain in abeyance.

With the above directions, the writ petition is disposed of finally.