Postal dept rapped for denying info to woman

Rumu Banerjee

New Delhi





The central information commission in an order has ruled that the daughter-in-law has a right to information on pension arrears of her father-inlaw. The case came up after the department of posts refused to share the information citing right to privacy of a third party . The order by information commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu is scathing about the lack of knowledge of law displayed by the chief information officer of the department of posts. It says: “It is pathetic that the CPIO did not bother to know the 2005 amendment to Hindu Succession Act, according to which sons and marriedunmarried daughters will have equal share and the family of the deceased son (wife, sons and daughters) will get the unit of that deceased son.“

 

It then went on to order the disclosure of the information to the appellant and also asked the public information officers to answer a show cause notice on why they should not be penalised for for “illegally denying the information sought“.

The appellant, the daughter-in-law of the deceased son of the pensioner, had asked for the action taken report on a representation letter dated January 2016 with regard to pension arrears of her father-in-law that needed to be settled. The CPIO had contended that the information sought belonged to a third party and thus rejected the RTI application.