Alleging that many fake disabled employees are working in the Trivandrum central railway station, who allegedly got jobs with the help of fake writers during their written examination, an RTI applicant’s request for the list of names of disabled personnel employed in the Southern Railways, was realised because of the recent furore over IAS trainee officer Puja Khedkar’s confirmation of having procured false disability certificates.
Last week, on 12th September, central information commissioner (CIC) Vinod Kumar Tiwari, in a complaint filed by RTI applicant Aravind M, observed that “It has become necessary to disclose such information publicly upfront.”
CIC Tiwari, who otherwise stated that the public information officer (CPIO) and the first appellate authority (FAA) of the Southern Railways were right in reserving the information, subsequently, in his order, elaborated that “Such information can no more be a matter of secrecy that can come under the exemption clauses under section 8 of the RTI Act.”
CIC Tiwari, in his order, further qualified candidly, that “...considering the gravity of the issue flagged by the complainant and the necessity of public scrutiny of the list of people claiming benefits under the special category as reported in the mainstream media highlighting the recent incident of an ineligible person who claimed the benefit of special category (an IAS probationer dismissed by DoPT in September 2024), it has become necessary to disclose such information publicly upfront.”
He also mentioned that an ineligible person’s appointment results in deprivation of a job to the real eligible person and “if, at a later stage, the ineligible person is removed and the vacancy is restored yet injustice would be caused to a few candidates who would have become over-age and thus, effectively denied opportunity.”
CIC Tiwari also gave the example of the list of below poverty line (BPL) families which is in the public domain. He observed in his order that “For the purpose of public scrutiny, the list of BPL families along with necessary details is already being published by various state governments. Accordingly, in the interest of transparency and probity, an advisory under section 25(5) of the RTI Act is issued to the respondent public authority for the upfront disclosure of the list of candidates selected under the disabled category and its related notifications/ orders in tune with the letter and spirit of suo moto disclosures prescribed under section 4 of the RTI Act as recently directed by Hon’ble Apex Court in the case titled Kishan Chand Jain v. UOI & Ors. WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) No. 990 of 2021 to make it easy for a layperson to get relevant information through the website. This will also relieve the public authority of the burden of such RTI applications.”
The RTI applicant had sent his explanation to the CIC, about why he had filed the complaint. He alleged that:
- It is seen that most of the disabled vacancies in the railways are filled up with fraud or fake disability certificate-owning people. It has also come to be known that people wearing spectacles apart from visual impairment get jobs by passing the railway examination with the help of fake scribes by producing fake disability certificates. These fraud people also own a driving licence and ride motor vehicles. This way, those who can't even crack a public exam get into government jobs very easily.
- Even in clerical posts of the Trivandrum division, these types of fraud or criminals work. They not only mock the whole railway examination system, but also the true disabled people.
- These types of fraud disabled people come from all categories of disabilities. As there are only a few vacancies reserved for disabled people, unfortunately most of the vacancies are snatched by these criminals.
- It may be assumed that these types of fraud disabled people work even in the personnel department of Trivandrum division, that is why both of my RTI applications were held for the maximum time and were replied that the questions come under Section 8 (1)(j) of the RTI ACT 2005. Even the questions about the number of disabled employees were rejected.
The RTI application filed by Aravind M sought the following information:
1. How many disabled employees are working at TVC (Trivandrum Central Division) as of 1.3.2023?
2. Provide the post-wise details of disabled employees based on their disability
3. Provide the certified copies of disability certificates of disabled employees working at TVC
4. How many disabled employees are working at TVC since 2016?
5. Provide the post-wise details of disabled employees working at TVC since 2016?
6. How many visually handicapped employees are working at TVC since 2016?
7. Provide the post-wise details of visually handicapped employees working at TVC
8. How many hearing-impaired employees are working at TVC since 2016?
9. Provide the post-wise details of hearing-impaired employees working at TVC
10. Provide the details of posts in TVC reserved for disabled employees and how many of them are vacant.
The CPIO had replied on 17 March 2023 that:
“There is no larger public interest in favour of disclosure of the information sought by you and the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest.
“Moreover, some of the information sought relates to personal information of several others and the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or disclosure would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual. Therefore, the same is not permissible to provide under section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, 2005.”
Aravind M had filed a first appeal on 26 March 2023 but the FAA replied that “… it is found that PIO had replied to your application under RTI Act. There is no larger public interest in favour of disclosure of the information sought by you and the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest.
“As per the RTI Act 2005, the information is to be provided as exists on records. As no such compiled data is available in this office file(s) as sought by you, the reply given by PIO stands good.”
(Vinita Deshmukh is consulting editor of Moneylife. She is also the convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting, which she won twice in 1998 and 2005 and the Chameli Devi Jain Award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book "To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte" with Vinita Kamte and is the author of "The Mighty Fall".)
