BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court directed the Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) to prescribe a uniform format across departments and public authorities for collecting, maintaining, and disclosing information on the implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act by public authorities, including the penalty imposed, total amount recovered and also the disciplinary proceedings initiated for not complying with the provisions of the Act, in the state to ensure that information is recorded consistently and can be readily compiled, verified, retrieved and compared.
“The KIC shall maintain on its official website a clearly identifiable section relating to RTI Implementation and Compliance. Information relating to the functioning of the commission, including information concerning appeals, complaints, penalties and recommendations under the Act, shall be placed there in the prescribed format, subject to the provisions of the Act”, the court said.
According to the order, the uniform format shall provide the year-wise information under the heads such as number of RTI applications received, disposed of, pending, rejected, first appeals received, disposed of, second appeals and complaints received by the KIC, number of proceedings initiated under Section 20(1) of the Act, number of cases in which penalty imposed, name and designation of the PIOs against whom penalty imposed, amount of penalty imposed, recovered, etc.
The KIC shall, as far as practicable, establish on its website a central electronic repository or index through which a citizen can locate the relevant RTI disclosures of different departments and public authorities without having to search each website separately.