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of the Election Commission, which is the appellate authority for the
purposes of the right to information requests, on the ground that if the
information sought by him were not provided, his right to information
would be infringed and consequently, the objectives and the
effectiveness of the RTI Act would be hindered (Annexure-C).
Thereafter, the Secretary of the Election Commission vide letter dated
03.09.2013 bearing Memo No. 17.00.0000.040.22.001.10-149 gave a
decision on the said appeal affirming the decision dated 14.07.2013
given by the designated Officer (RTI) without assigning any reason
whatsoever (Annexure-D). Being aggrieved, the petitioner No.1 filed
a complaint dated 09.09.2013 under section 25 of the RTI Act before
the respondent No.1-Information Commission stating that as a citizen
of Bangladesh he was entitled under the RTI Act to be provided with
the information requested from the Election Commission (AnnexureE). On receipt thereof, it was registered as Complaint No. 97/20103.
Accordingly, the respondent No.1 issued a summons dated 26.09.2013
requiring the petitioner No.1 to attend a hearing at the office of the
Information Commission on 22.10.2013 at 11.00 AM. In compliance
thereof, he duly appeared and attended the hearing (Annexure-F).
After the hearing on 22.10.2013, the respondent No.1 issued its
decision dated 22.10.2013 (Annexure-G) holding that the information
requested involved a “third-party” and that the disclosure of such
information was not possible without the opinion of the “third-party”.
Said decisions are quoted below: