1. While filing the application under L/L clearly specify on the heading of the application in bold letters that the application below is being submitted under Life or Liberty.
2. Mention in the application that as per section 7(1) the Public Information Officer has to provide the information within 48 hours.
3. Dispatch the letter by hand or by the fastest means available.
4. If no reply is received within 3 or 4 days file a first appeal and send its copy to Public Information Officer too.
5. In first appeal too don’t forget to mention that the application filed is under life or liberty and the First Appellate Authority should take decision with 48 hours of filing the application.
6. If no reply within next three/four days, file second appeal and send the copy of appeal to Public Information Officer and First Appellate Authority. File your second appeal online as it has the option to state if the matter is related to life or liberty.
7. File such applications under L/L only when there is eminent danger to life or liberty of person (not to property etc.)
It is true that Public Information Officer only can decide if the application should be treated under life or liberty or not. But at the same time he is also responsible for any casualty which may be because of his delay.
In its decision dated 12 March 2010 Information Commissioner Mr Shailesh Gandhi as rightly stated as follows:
2. Mention in the application that as per section 7(1) the Public Information Officer has to provide the information within 48 hours.
3. Dispatch the letter by hand or by the fastest means available.
4. If no reply is received within 3 or 4 days file a first appeal and send its copy to Public Information Officer too.
5. In first appeal too don’t forget to mention that the application filed is under life or liberty and the First Appellate Authority should take decision with 48 hours of filing the application.
6. If no reply within next three/four days, file second appeal and send the copy of appeal to Public Information Officer and First Appellate Authority. File your second appeal online as it has the option to state if the matter is related to life or liberty.
7. File such applications under L/L only when there is eminent danger to life or liberty of person (not to property etc.)
It is true that Public Information Officer only can decide if the application should be treated under life or liberty or not. But at the same time he is also responsible for any casualty which may be because of his delay.
In its decision dated 12 March 2010 Information Commissioner Mr Shailesh Gandhi as rightly stated as follows:
Proviso of Section 7(1) states that where the information sought concerns the life or liberty of a person, the same shall be provided within forty-eight hours of the receipt of the request. This provision has to be applied only in exceptional cases and the norm is that information should be provided within thirty days from the receiving date. Whether the information sought concerns the life or liberty of a person has to be carefully scrutinized and only in a very limited number of cases this ground can be relied upon. The government machinery is not designed in a way that responses to all RTI Applications can be given within forty-eight hours. A broad interpretation of ‘life or liberty’ would result in a substantial diversion of manpower and resources towards replying to RTI Applications which would be unjustified. Parliament has made a very special exception for cases involving ‘life or liberty’ so that it would be used only when an imminent threat to life or liberty is involved.
