PANAJI
The Goa State Information Commission (GSIC) has imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000 on two successive Public Information Officers (PIOs) of the Mapusa Municipal Council for failing to furnish information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and defying directions issued by the Commission.
The penalty has been levied on Rajendra Bagkar, the then PIO at the time of the RTI application, and Nilesh Lingudkar, who replaced Bagkar during the pendency of the appeal. Both government officers have been fined Rs 25,000 each under Section 20(1) of the RTI Act in the order pronounced by State Information Commissioner Atmaram Barve.
The Commission was acting on a complaint filed by one Jawaharlal Shetye, who had filed an appeal over an unsatisfactory reply to his RTI queries dated March 16, 2023. Shetye had approached the Commission, which in its order on December 21, 2023 directed the concerned PIO to furnish information within 20 days.
However, citing non-compliance with the earlier directive, Shetye filed a fresh complaint on January 29, 2024.
The complaint was pending due to the former GSIC demitting office with proceedings resuming from November 7, 2024.
Meanwhile, the Commission noted that Bagkar neither responded to the RTI application within the stipulated time frame nor complied with the earlier orders of the Commission. Moreover, he failed to make any submissions during the hearings.
Lingudkar, who took over the charge, was aware of the case and the Commission’s previous orders. Although he appeared for hearings and, on April 7, 2025, proposed to provide a point-wise reply to the RTI application, the Commission found that he had submitted irrelevant and misleading information.
“The conduct of both the PIOs has been completely against the spirit of the RTI Act and the authorities constituted therein. Inaction on the part of Bagkar and the act of providing misleading information on the part of Lingudkar have both caused grave prejudice to the right of the information seeker in this matter,” the Commission observed in its order.
Calling the actions of both officers a “denial of information,” the Commission concluded that the case warranted strict action against them.
With Rs 25,000 penalty on each, the Commission has directed the Director of Municipal Administration to recover the amount from the two officers and submit a compliance report by April 28. Further, the current PIO has been instructed to reassess the original RTI application appeal filed on March 16, 2023 and respond to it on or before April 25.
