What if the government officials and employees did not provide the information and documents as per the demand in the application?
Maharashtra Public Records Act 2005 regulates the management, preservation, and administration of public records in the state of Maharashtra. It also prohibits the removal of public records from the state.
As per definition of Public Record under act following documents are public records includes :-
- any document, manuscript and file
- any microfilm, microfiche and facsimile copy of a document;
- any reproduction of image or images embodied in such microfilm (whether enlarged or not); and
- any other material produced by a computer or by any other device
As per section 6 of records officer shall be responsible for proper management, maintenance, and preservation of public records, periodical review and many more.
If any public records officer/Public Information officer under Right to Information Act gives answer that Records/documents missing, stolen, not found, lost then one can file criminal complaint against such officer under section 166, 188 of the Indian Penal Code and liable to 5 years imprisonment, 10 thousand rupees fine or both if found guilty.
Bombay High Court in Vivek Vishnupant Kulkarni v. State Government and State Information Commission, Pune and others (Writ Petition No. 6961/2012 dated 27/02/2015) ordered to file FIR against such Public Information Officer under section 166, 188 of the Indian Penal Code, a case can be registered when the appellate officer fails to furnish the information to the Public Information Officer despite being ordered by the appellate officer to furnish the information.
If such a reply is received from the central government office, action can be taken according to section 7,8 of the Public Records Act 1985. Otherwise, as I mentioned in the above post, this central law came in 1985 and is a copy of the Maharashtra law.
As per section 7,8 of Maharashtra Public Records Act 2005 case can be filed in JMFC Court as per section 9 imprisonment up to five years or fine of Rs.10 thousand or both.
It should be pointed out that under Section 11 of the Maharashtra Whistle Blower Act 2014, if the applicant’s information is kept confidential, the officer disclosing the information under Section 15 and 16 and the controlling officer of the employees may be punished with hard labor for 3 years and a fine of ₹ 25,000 or both.
