Overview
- State Information Commissioner Susanta Kumar Mohanty issued the order against Chittaranjan Sethy of Satapuri in Puri district after reviewing his filings.
- The Commission dismissed 61 matters taken up together from 2023 as repetitive and noted 383 cases filed by the same applicant were pending as of June 30, 2025.
- The ruling imposes a one-year prohibition on new RTI requests and caps the applicant to 12 applications per calendar year across public authorities with mandatory affidavits on annual counts.
- The Puri Collector was directed to verify the genuineness of the applicant’s BPL card, and authorities were advised to reject repetitive or burdensome queries under the RTI Act.
- RTI campaigners, including OSAA convenor Pradip Pradhan, criticized the order as contrary to the Act’s spirit and argued the Commission should penalize defaulting Public Information Officers.