Excessive fees: Chief Information Commissioner takes action against Survey Department

KOCHI: The Chief Information Commissioner of the State has taken action against the Survey Department for trying to charge an excessive fee for the document requested by an individual under the Right to Information Act. The order of the Public Information Officer of the Survey Department to pay Rs 3,340 and the action of the first appellate authority to uphold the decision was dismissed and an order was given to make the documents available within 10 days for Rs 200.

Bineesh P Chacko, a lawyer from Changanassery, won the case after a nine-month legal battle.

Bineesh filed an RTI application with the State Survey Department seeking a block map of the property and a related field measurement sketch to be submitted to the court as a case file. The State Public Information Officer at the Central Survey Office replied that a total of Rs. 3340 be paid towards the survery department's account including Rs 1330 for two block maps, Rs 240 as GST, Rs 1500 for three field measurement sketches with an added GST of Rs 270. However, the first appellate authority, after considering the appeal filed on the ground that this was a violation of the fourth provision of the Right to Information Act, ordered that only tax be exempted from the fee of documents. Subsequently, the applicant approached the Chief Information Commissioner.