Kochi: In what could be termed as a double-edged sword, the state has issued a circular asking public information officers not to reject RTI applications unless the file is officially destroyed and keep a file retention schedule.
The circular issued by Mr P.S. Gopakumar, special secretary to the government, has urged all public sector units and autonomous institutions to formulate a record retention schedule and ensure that the records are destroyed only in accordance with such stipulation and also publish the same on the official website of public authorities.
“The public authority has a duty to initiate action for this kind of loss of public record. Every public authority should prescribe the record retention schedule and any destruction of the file shall be under competent administrative level with record showing that the file has been destroyed on the expiry of the retention period,” the circular said.
With this, the practice of officials helping persons with vested interests to destroy a file can be curbed.
The circular was issued pursuant to a Central Information Commission directive to declare that the missing or the untraceability of the file containing the information sought for cannot be deemed as a valid exemption by the RTI Act.
The commission asked the state to issue such a circular after the Delhi High Court held that rejecting files in the guise of ‘missing file’ tended to discourage the very objective of the RTI Act.
As per the latest circular, those who violate the norm would be punishable with imprisonment up to five years or with fine or both. Unless proved that the record was destroyed as per the prescribed rules of destruction/retention policy, it is deemed that the record continues to be held by the public authority.
