Bhubaneswar: TheOdisha State Information Commission on Saturday barred an applicant from Puri district from filing new applications under the RTI Act for one year, citing “abuse of the RTI process”. The order was delivered by State Information Commissioner Susanta Kumar Mohanty after finding that the applicant, identified as Chittaranjan Sethy of Satapuri village, had made 61 applications seeking information from Meteipur gram panchayat and Nimapara block office, demanding month-wise and year-wise details of income, expenditure and development works.

The panel noted that despite receiving responses and opportunities to inspect documents, Sethy continued filing repetitive applications. Therefore, the order said: “The 61 cases filed by the appellant/complainant are hereby dismissed.”

“Given the above facts, the commission concludes that the applicant’s conduct is an abuse of RTI process. His act is a clear indication of misuse. No doubt the applicant, being a citizen of India, has the right to get the information under the RTI Act, 2005, but he/she is also duty-bound to obey the law of the land and procedure. Keeping in view the facts mentioned above, the applicant deserves to be dealt in a strict manner,” the order said.

While putting a ban on the applicant on filing new RTI applications for one year, the State Information Commission put a cap on queries allowing 12 RTI applications per year across all public authorities and ordered mandatory affidavits disclosing the number of applications filed annually.

The order also said that by using BPL card, the applicant filed applications indiscriminately.

Hence, the Collector and District Magistrate, Puri, is directed to verify the genuineness/status of his BPL card and take appropriate action accordingly. A State-wide advisory to departments be issued to reject repetitive or burdensome queries from him under Section 7(9) of the RTI Act, it said.

“No institution dedicated to democracy can agree to the disproportionate/uncontrolled use of such a sacred Act,” the order said.