CCTV Footage not provided under RTI, Rs. 10,000 penalty imposed on the Deputy Director of E.S.I.C. Dental College, Rohini, Delhi.
In a major development, the Central Information Commission has imposed a penalty of Rs. 10,000 against Mr. Sovan Bera, Dy. Director, E.S.I.C. Dental College and Hospital, Rohini, Delhi, for his failure to provide CCTV footage of an alleged ragging incident.
The matter relates to a ragging complaint from the said institution, wherein several female students were ragged by their seniors from 12th October 2024 to 19th October 2024.
The Vice-President of the NGO S.A.V.E., Mr. Gaurav Singhal, filed an RTI on 22nd October 2024 with the CPIO of E.S.I.C. Dental College and Hospital, Rohini, seeking CCTV footage of certain areas from 12th October 2024 to 19th October 2024 during the lunch hours, where the alleged ragging took place.
Though it is mandatory to reply the RTI query within 30 days, the CPIO replied after a delay of 48 days, and to top it, stated that the sought
footage was not available in the CCTV recording system, since the system only stored the CCTV footage for one month and that period had already
passed by the time of reply of the RTI by the CPIO.
Challenging the response of the CPIO, Mr. Gaurav Singhal filed a complaint with the Hon’ble Chief Information Commissioner, Delhi. There were three grounds of the complaint:
- That the CPIO replied in 48 days instead of the mandatory 30 days.
- That the CCTV footages were still not provided stating that the college CCTV system stored the footages only for one month and by the time of the RTI reply the footages were automatically deleted.
- That as per Dental Council of India (DCI)s letter reference number DEWebsite- 2016/9291 Dated- 15/11/2016, all the dental colleges in this country are obligated to preserve the CCTV footages for a period of 6 months. Hence it was mandatory for the college to provide this information.
The Hon’ble Chief Information Commissioner Mr. Ashutosh Chaturvedi heard the matter on 5th May 2026 and the explanation furnished by the
custodian of information, Mr. Sovan Bera, Dy. Director, E.S.I.C. Dental College and Hospital, Rohini, Delhi was found to be unsatisfactory and he
was held liable for denial of information.
The Commission considered it as a fit case to impose penalty on Mr. Sovan Bera, custodian of information and imposed penalty of Rs. 10,000/-. (please see page 6 of the annexed CIC order).
This decision by the Central Information Commission will go a long way in the fight against concealment of information, particular the denial to provide CCTV footages by the government institutions.
We thank the media for covering this news. Some of the articles may be accessed from the links below: