If you do not receive a decision from the PIO within 30 days, you can file an appeal against the decision of the PIO before an officer who is senior to the PIO. You need to file this appeal within 30 days. This time period may be extended if the officer feels that the delay is justified.
Usually, the public authority will state who the appellate authority is on its website or at its office. This will be an officer who is senior in rank to the PIO. A third party can also file an appeal within 30 days of the date of the order by the PIO.
If you are not satisfied with the first appeal decision, you can make a second appeal within 90 days to the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission by following the suggested format for the second appeal.
The responsibility of proving that the refusal to provide information was justified lies squarely on the PIO who refused this information. The Information Commission should finish the appeal in 30 days. This can be extended to forty-five days with reasons being recorded for the extension.
In order to make a decision, the Information Commission can ask the public authority to:
- provide information in a particular manner
- appoint a PIO
- publish relevant information
- manage records properly
- conduct training programmes for officials
- provide an annual report
- provide compensation to any complainant
It can also impose penalties and reject specific applications.
If your application requests the following kinds of information, the public authority can lawfully refuse to give you:
- Information that affects the security and economic interests of the government with another country
- Information that is banned from being published by any court or tribunal
- Information that would result in a breach of privilege of the Legislature
- Information that would harm commercial interests
- Information that arises because of a relationship based on trust
- Information from a foreign government which was given as a secret
- Information that exposes whistleblowers or endangers lives
- Information that would cause difficulty to police investigation or arrests in criminal cases
- Records of the Cabinet Ministers (reasons and materials can be made public after the decision is made)
- Personal information (however, such information has to be revealed to the Parliament or State Legislature if asked for)
If the release of the information causes copyright infringement, the PIO can refuse the request for information. Furthermore, the exemption does not apply if the information requested is more than 20 years old. In such a case, it must be given to the applicant. However, information relating to security and economic interests with another country, breach of parliamentary privilege and Cabinet proceedings can be denied even if it is more than 20 years old.
Anyone who is arrested and in the custody of the police should be produced before the nearest Magistrate within a period of twenty-four hours of their arrest. The police are required to produce every arrested person before the Magistrate to ensure that there have been legal grounds for the arrest of the person. Copies of all the documents including the memo of arrest should be sent to the concerned Magistrate for their record. In the instance of the accused person not being produced before the Magistrate, a Habeas Corpus petition can be filed.
If you have a complaint about the way in which the PIO handled your RTI application, you can approach the higher authorities established under this Act – the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission. They have a duty under this Act to inquire into your complaint. You can make a complaint in the following situations:
- When the public authority has not appointed a PIO in the first place;
- When a PIO has refused to give information;
- When a PIO has not given you information within the allowed time;
- When the PIO has asked for too many fees for giving you the information; and
- When the PIO has given you incomplete or wrong information.
If the Commission is convinced that there are reasonable grounds in the complaint, it has to initiate an inquiry into the matter. For the purpose of conducting an inquiry, it has the same powers as a civil court. This means that it can ask for people to come and be witnesses or submit relevant documents as evidence, inspect these documents, and ask for any public records.
Norms and Standards to be followed by schools
The right to education law prescribes that the Pupil-Teacher Ratio should be maintained at 30:1 for first class to fifth class and 35:1 for sixth class to eighth class. It also provides that there should be(( Schedule I, Item 2, The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.)):
- At least one classroom for every teacher
- Separate toilets for boys and girls
- Barrier-free access
- A playground
- Safe and adequate drinking water facility for the children
- A kitchen where mid-day meals can be cooked in the school A library in each school provides newspapers, magazines and books on all subjects, including story-books.
- A teacher also needs to have a minimum of 45 working hours per week including preparation hours.
Creation of a School Management Committee
All schools run by the government or substantially aided by it are mandated to form a School Management Committee (SMC). The SMC comprises the elected representatives of the local authority and the parents, with ¾ of the committee composed of parents of the children, admitted in school. The SMC is devised to monitor the working of the school, prepare development plans for the school, monitor utilisation of grants for the school etc. However, the SMC for minority schools and aided schools shall perform advisory functions only. The SMC is vested with the responsibility of devising a School Development Plan, which will be the basis for plans and grants made by the respective State Government or local authorities.
Provide meals to the children
The law provides that all students between the ages of six to fourteen years who enrol and attend the school studying between I to VIII classes shall be entitled to nutritious meals at no cost. ((Rule 7, Mid Day Meal Rules, 2015.))The funds for such meals shall be provided by the state government. However, implementation of the scheme and monitoring of the quality and preparation of the meal is overseen by the School Management Committee.(( Rule 3, Mid Day Meal Rules, 2015.))These meals should be provided on all days except school holidays and should be served at school.(( Rule 4, Mid Day Meal Rules, 2015))
The police officers handling the interrogation should bear accurate, visible and clear identification and name tags with their designations. The details of the police personnel who handle your interrogation must be recorded in a register. The arrested person will be permitted to meet their lawyer during interrogation.
Certain organisations like the security and intelligence agencies are excluded from giving information under the purview of this law. A list of these excluded organisations is provided in the Second Schedule to the RTI Act. However, information relating to corruption or human rights violations in such organisations can be asked for and provided after the Central Information Commission agrees to it. This has to be provided in 45 days.
If you face any grievance or you have a complaint regarding the education of a child, you can approach the following authorities:
Students/Parents/Any person
Any person, including parents, can file a complaint with:
Local Authorities
Complaints can be made to Gram Panchayat or the Block Education Officer. The Block Education officer is in charge of the education of students within their block and also supervises the functioning of the schools.
National/State Commission for Protection of Child Rights
The National and State Commission for Protection of Child Rights works for the protection of all children in the 0 to 18 years age group. Their work includes addressing children in backward or vulnerable communities. If you have any grievances, you can complain not only to the National Commission but also to the commissions set up in each state. Any person aggrieved by the decision of the local authority can file an appeal(( Section 32(3), The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.)) to the State Commission for Protection for Child Rights in case of grievances. The helpline numbers and email ids differ from state to state but can be found on their website.
Some immediate ways you can complain to the National Commission are:
Online
The government has an online complaint system where you can file your complaint.
Via Phone:
You can contact the following numbers:
- National Commission for Protection of Child Rights- 9868235077
- Childline India (Childline is a helpline for offences committed against children)- 1098
Via Email:
You can send an email to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights: pocsoebox-ncpcr@gov.in
Via Post/Letter/Messenger:
You can write to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights with your complaint or send a messenger to this address:
NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR PROTECTION OF CHILD RIGHTS (NCPCR)
5th Floor, Chandralok Building 36, Janpath,
New Delhi-110001 India.
Courts
Complaints can also be taken to court since the Right to Education is a fundamental right for children. You should take the help of a lawyer for this.
The law provides that all students between the ages of six to fourteen years who enrol and attend the school studying between I to VIII classes shall be entitled to nutritious meals at no cost. The funds for such meals shall be provided by the state government. However, implementation of the scheme and monitoring of the quality and preparation of the meal is overseen by the School Management Committee.(( Rule 7, Mid Day Meal Rules, 2015.))These meals should be provided on all days except school holidays. The place of service for such meals is at school only.
If for any reason, the mid-day meal is not provided to the child on any day, a food security allowance consisting of food grains and money shall be paid by the State Government to every child by the 15th of next month.(( Rule 3, Mid Day Meal Rules, 2015.)) The allowance includes food grains and money. It shall be based on the number of food grains entitled to the child and the cooking cost prevailing in the state. Children who voluntarily do not consume the mid-day meal, however, shall not be entitled to such allowance.(( Rule 9, Mid Day Meal Rules, 2015.))
Read more on Frequently Asked Questions on Mid Day Meals on the Nyaaya Blog, given here.
The National Council for Teacher Education prescribes the qualifications for teachers in India. One of the essential qualifications for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher in any of the schools is that he/she should pass the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) which will be conducted by the appropriate Government. Other than this, there are different qualifications required for teaching different classes.(( Govt of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, F.No. 61-03/20/2010/NCTE/(N&S) (23rd August 2010) available at http://righttoeducation.in/sites/default/files/Notification%20of%20NCTE%20for%20the%20minimum%20qualification%20for%20a%20person%20to%20be%20eligible%20for%20appointment%20as%20a%20School%20teacher.pdf))
Teachers of Class 1-5
Qualifications include:
- Senior Secondary with at least 50% marks and a 2-year diploma in elementary education or
- 4 year Bachelor in Elementary Education or a 2-year diploma in Education (special education).
Teachers of Class 6-8:
Qualifications include:
- B.A/ B.Sc degree and a 2-year diploma in elementary education. Or, B.A/ B.Sc degree with at least 50% marks and a 1-year bachelor in education or a 1-year B.Ed (special education)
- Or, a senior secondary with at least 50% marks and 4 year Bachelor in Elementary Education or 4-year B.A/B.Sc.Ed
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