Dear Comrades,
The full bench of Central Information Commission (CIC) has mooted
special RTI postal stamps for the users of Right to Information (RTI)
Act, 2005. The commission feels these stamps would help reduce troubles
faced by applicants in terms of Indian postal orders (IPO) and court fee
stamp.
While the state government offices accept court fee stamps of Rs
10 denomination as requisite fee, applicants have to use IPOs to pay the
RTI fee. IPOs bring with it the added cost of commission to the post
offices that has to be borne by applicants.
Many a times, applicants receive their applications back as the
IPOs are returned for being wrongly addressed. Also, till the IPOs are
not encashed the process of giving information is not started by the
public information office.
Delhi-based RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agarwal had filed a
complaint seeking streamlining of the RTI application fee process.
Agarwal said in many cases applications are rejected owing to the expiry
of due date of IPOs. Despite clear instructions from the Department of
Personnel and Training (DoPT) to accept RTI fee, many post offices were
not following norms, he said. Agarwal also highlighted the non
availability of IPOs in many of post office.
While hearing the complaint, the bench of CIC comprising
Satyanand Mishra, ML Sharma and Basant Seth, agreed that applicants face
problems in paying RTI application fees. The bench observed the
problems faced by applicants was in contravention to the spirit of the
RTI Act.
"The best solution to address the fee-related problem is to issue
RTI stamps of the denomination of Rs 10 by the Department of Posts. It
will be a time saving and cost-effective step," the bench observed.
Welcoming the move, Mumbai-based RTI activist Bhaskar Prabhu said
this would benefit applicants in the long run. "The stamps should be
applicable both in state and at the Centre," he said.
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