Land Records Dept. PIO penalized Rs. 40,000 for withholding information

Land Records Dept. PIO

A Public Information Officer (PIO) with the Land Records Department was fined for not providing information to an applicant regarding some properties. The applicant had filed four RTI applications related to city survey number, transfer deed, sale deed, mutation of certain property and the reason why this was done. A penalty of Rs. 40,000 was levied on the PIO for not providing the desired information to the applicant.

The fine was imposed by Thanksy Thekkekara, state information commissioner (Konkan bench) on February 26. The RTI applications were filed by Jayesh Motawani, a resident of Ulhasnagar. In The order, the superintendent of land records was also asked to conduct and enquiry into the matter. This case is another instance of a PIO not providing information to a series of RTI applications.

In his four applications, Motawani had sought details of land records, property card, mutation entry and documents that his uncle had but were changed to someone else’s name after he passed away in 1990. The alleged transfers took place in 1993, 2011 and 2012. “I wanted the information but the PIO did not give any,” said Motwani adding that He then chose to file an appeal. No order was passed in the first appeal. However, after filing of the second appeal, the commission called both the then PIO when the application was filed and the present one.

While Vijay Lalsingh Rathod, the PIO who was in office when the application was filed, was fined Rs. 40,000, TM Chavan, the present PIO, was slapped with a show-cause notice as to why no action should be taken against  him.