PTI

No fee for diverting manpower for providing info: CIC

Sun, Nov 8 10:38 AM

New Delhi, Nov 8 (PTI) In a long-awaited decision, the CIC has said no fee other than prescribed in the information law can be demanded from applicants for providing information. The decision comes as a relief to RTI applicants as several government agencies, including the Delhi Police, were demanding lakhs of rupees as "further fee" from them whenever they sought voluminous information.

They cited that "considerable manpower was supposed to be utilised or diverted to discern that information" for which the applicant had to pay on the basis of man-days calculated by the authorities. Deciding a similar case of RTI applicant Subodh Jain where the Delhi Police had demanded a total of Rs 1.60 lakh for his four different applications, the Commission said, "the issue regarding charging cost of deployment of manpower on the basis of man-days is not admissible under the Act.

" The four-member Bench clarified that fee can only be charged under RTI Act under three provisions - application fee which is generally Rs 10, charges for photocopying etc which is normally Rs two per page and getting information in printed or electronic format. The bench said, "no further fee representing the cost shall be charged.

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