Uttar Pradesh Information Commission

Imposition of Penalty by the Commission

1. Where the Commission, at the time of deciding any complaint or appeal is of the opinion that the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, has, without any reasonable cause, refused to receive an application for information or has not furnished information within the time specified under sub section (1) of section 7 or malafidely denied the request for information or knowingly given incorrect, incomplete or misleading information or destroyed information which was the subject of the request or obstructed in any manner in furnishing the information, it shall impose a penalty of two hundred and fifty rupees each day till application is received or information is furnished, so however, the total amount of such penalty shall not exceed twenty-five thousand rupees:
   Provided that the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, shall be given a reasonable opportunity of being heard before any penalty is imposed on him: Provided further that the burden of proving that he acted reasonably and diligently shall be on the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer, as the case may be.
2. Where the State Information Commission, at the time of deciding any complaint or appeal is of the opinion that the State Public Information Officer has, without any reasonable cause and persistently, failed to receive an application for information or has not furnished information within the time specified under sub section (1) of section 7 or malafidely denied the request for information or knowingly given incorrect, incomplete or misleading information or destroyed information which was the subject of the request or obstructed in any manner in furnishing the information, it shall recommend for disciplinary action against the State Public Information Officer, under the service rules applicable to him.

Monitoring and reporting by the Commission

1. The State Information Commission shall, as soon as practicable after the end of each year, prepare a report on the implementation of the provisions of the Act during that year and forward a copy thereof to the Government.
2. Each Department shall, in relation to the public authorities within its jurisdiction, collect and provide such information to the State Information Commission, as is required to prepare the Annual report.
3. Each report shall state in respect of the year to which the report relates:
   • The number of requests made to each public authority
   • The number of decisions where applicants were not entitled to access to the documents pursuant to the requests, the provisions of the Act under which these decisions were made and the number of times such provisions were invoked
   • The number of appeals referred to the State Information Commission for review, the nature of the appeals and the outcome of the appeals
   • Particulars of any disciplinary action taken against any officer in respect of the administration of the Act
   • The amount of charges collected by each public authority under the Act
   • any facts which indicate an effort by the public authorities to administer and implement the spirit and intention of the Act
   • Recommendations for reform, including recommendations in respect of the particular public authorities, for the development, improvement, modernisation, reform or amendment to the Act or other legislation or common law or any other matter relevant for operationalising the right to access information
4. If it appears to the State Information Commission that the practice of a public authority in relation to the exercise of its functions under the Act does not conform with the provisions or spirit of the Act, it may give to the authority a recommendation specifying the steps which ought in its opinion to be taken for promoting such conformity.