MeitY off the hook as CIC drops showcause notice in Aarogya Setu-RTI case
1 min read . Updated: 26 Nov 2020, 10:20 PM IST- The showcause notice was issued in response to an RTI query on the origin of the Aarogya Setu app, details on the proposal and approvals of the app, along with names of companies, government agencies involved in developing the app
NEW DELHI : Central Information Commission (CIC) has dropped the showcause notice issued to ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) and said it will not slap any penalty on them with respect to the Aarogya Setu-RTI complaint case.
In a strongly worded order, last month, the CIC had issued a showcause notice to central public information officers (CPIOs) of MeitY, National eGovernance Division (NeGD) and National Informatics Centre (NIC) and asked them why a penalty under the RTI Act should not be slapped on them for obstructing information and saying that information related to the app was available on public domain. They were also asked to appear before them on November 24. NeGD and NIC come under the administrative control of MeitY.
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CIC has also decided to dispose the complaint and not impose any fine on them as ‘no malafide or intention to conceal information’ has been found in the oral and written responses of the CPIOs. “The show cause notice proceedings are dropped and the complaint too is disposed of accordingly," a CIC order seen by Mint said.
The showcause notice was issued in response to an RTI query on the origin of the Aarogya Setu app, details on the proposal and approvals of the app, along with names of companies, government agencies involved in developing the app.
On Tuesday, the government representative Shiloma Rao admitted that the RTI application was handled ‘poorly’ due to lack of coordination between different public information officers. Besides, the information was scattered across various government departments.
Rao also tendered an unconditional apology on behalf of the concerned CPIOs, according to the CIC order.
An official circular issued on November 19 said that it has given MeitY’s D K Sagar to handle all RTI requests on Aarogya Setu .
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