Banwari Lal S/o Shri. Udmi Ram v. Public Information Officer & Assistant Commercial Taxes Officer, Ward-3 Nohar, Circle-A, Hanumangarh (Raj. )
2017-12-13
VIJAY BISHNOI
body2017
DigiLaw.ai
JUDGMENT/ORDER : VIJAY BISHNOI, J. This writ petition is filed by the petitioner seeking following reliefs : “It is, therefore, humbly prayed that this writ petition may kindly be allowed and by issuing an appropriate writ, order or direction: [1] The respondent No. 1 may kindly be directed to furnish the information requested by the petitioner vide his application dated 03.05.2016 (Annex.1) and as pronounced by learned State Information Commission vide judgment dated 27.07.2017 (Annex.7). [2] The respondent may also appropriately saddled with exemplary cost for defying and undermining mandate of the RTI Act; [3] The costs of this writ petition may kindly be awarded in favour of the petitioner. [4] Any other writ, order or direction which your Lordship may deem just and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case, may also kindly be issued in favour of the petitioner.” 2. Brief facts of the case are that the petitioner filed an application to the respondent No. 1 Public Information Officer of the Department of Commercial Taxes at Nohar seeking information pertaining to survey conducted at his business place on 28.10.2015 and proceedings of record verification for assessment year 2015-2016 with final report on the survey. 3. The said application filed by the petitioner came to be rejected by the respondent No. 1 vide order dated 01.06.2016 (Annexure-2) for the reasons that the application is not in prescribed format, information sought does not appear to be in larger public interest, fee and charges for photocopies of requisite information are not submitted and as per the provisions of section 94(2) of Rajasthan VAT Act, the information sought can be provided by an order of the Commissioner upon application filed in prescribed format with requisite fees. 4. The petitioner being aggrieved with rejection of his application, had preferred a first appeal, however, when the said appeal was not decided within prescribed time, he preferred a second appeal No. 2087/2017 before Rajasthan Information Commission (for short ‘the Commission’ hereinafter). 5. After receiving the notice from the Commission, the respondent - Commercial Taxes Department submitted its reply, however, the Commission has accepted the said appeal and directed the respondent No. 1 to provide information sought by the petitioner vide his application dated 03.05.2016. 6.
5. After receiving the notice from the Commission, the respondent - Commercial Taxes Department submitted its reply, however, the Commission has accepted the said appeal and directed the respondent No. 1 to provide information sought by the petitioner vide his application dated 03.05.2016. 6. The petitioner is claiming that the respondent - department is not supplying the information to him on the ground that copy of the order dated 27.07.2017 passed by the Commission has not been received by it. 7. Having heard learned counsel for the petitioner and having gone through the order dated 27.07.2017 (Annexure-7) passed by the Commission, this Court is of the opinion that the Commission has not at all taken into consideration the fact that the application filed by the petitioner seeking certain information was dismissed by the respondent No. 1 vide order dated 01.06.2016 Without examining the validity of the order dated 01.06.2016, the Commission straightway passed an order to provide information to the petitioner as demanded vide application dated 03.05.2016. The Commission was required to decide whether the rejection of the application by the respondent No. 1 vide order dated 01.06.2016 is just and proper or not and then only it could give any direction based on its judgment in respect of the order dated 01.06.2016. 8. In such circumstances, the matter is remanded to the Rajasthan Information Commission with a direction to the Commission to decide the Appeal No.2087/2017 filed on behalf of the petitioner, after taking into consideration the reply filed on behalf of the Commercial Taxes Department and after adjudging the validity of the order dated 01.06.2016 passed by the respondent No. 1. 9. In view of the above, this writ petition is disposed of.