Organic farming council told to give info on expenditure

State Information Commission Lt Gen P K Grover (Retd) has also sent a copy of the order to N S Kang,Financial Commissioner,Development,to take cognisance of the matter.

Hitender Jain of NGO Resurgence India,Ludhiana ,had sought information from the PIO of the Organic Farming Council regarding the expenditure incurred by it from February 9,2006,onwards. Quoting the Indian Evidence Act,1872,he had stated that he be provided authenticated copies of the documents,which “should not be certified by fixing rubber stamp of the signatures”.

He had,however,added that his demand for information was under the Right to Information Act and not under the Indian Evidence Act,and the Section was quoted only for the purpose of elaborating the manner in which certification should be done.

The council denied information,stating that the documents had already been provided to the complainant in an earlier case filed by him. Turning down Jain’s demand for information in a specific format,the council said there was no provision in the entire legal jurisprudence wherein the certified copies in a particular format could be provided. The respondent also stated that information sought was not specific.

Jain argued that he was not insisting on certification according to the Indian Evidence Act and that he would accept documents according to the directions of the commission.

He said the information sought was very specific — bills and orders related to eight specific firms — adding that there was no bar under the RTI Act for seeking information again. He said his demand was for all the documents pertaining to expenditure borne by the council on various things,such as drip irrigation system,pump sets,citrus plants,labour and agricultural operations on the agricultural land of now retired IAS officer R S Sandhu. Jain added that the demand was not only for bills and purchase orders but all the documents pertaining to Sandhu’s agricultural land.

Grover said it had emerged that the basic ground for denial of information was that it had already been supplied in a different case. “All other arguments submitted subsequently by the respondent are an afterthought,” he added.

Directing the PIO to provide certified information by August 20 free of cost,he said the specific format was suggested for the convenience of the respondent.

The case will come up for confirmation of compliance on August 26.