[toggle title=”Are there any penalties for violating this Act?”]<\/p>\n
YES.<\/strong> If any person commits one of the following acts, the Commission can take that person before a court of law;<\/p>\n \u00a0a)\u00a0 Knowingly prevents access to information or intentionally provides incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate information;<\/p>\n (b)\u00a0 Destroys, invalidates, alters or totally or partially conceals information in his\/her possession;<\/p>\n (c)\u00a0 Fails or refuses to appear before the Commission when requested;<\/p>\n (d)\u00a0 Appears before the Commission, but<\/p>\n (i) fails or refuses to be questioned by the Commission or<\/p>\n (ii) fails or refuses to produce any information which he\/she has or<\/p>\n (iii) deliberately provides false information under oath or affirmation;<\/p>\n (e)\u00a0 Fails or refuses to carry out a decision of the Commission;<\/p>\n (f)\u00a0 Resists or obstructs the Commission or its employees from exercising their powers;<\/p>\n (g)\u00a0 Discloses information in violation of the Act;<\/p>\n If a person commits any of the above, he\/she is guilty of an offence. He\/she will be prosecuted and if found guilty will be liable to a fine of fifty thousand rupees (Rs.50,000\/=) or less or to imprisonment for a period of less than two years or to both a fine and imprisonment.<\/strong><\/p>\n Additionally, if any other officer employed in a Public Authority refuses or fails without reasonable grounds, to extend his\/her support and services to the Information Officer of that authority, he\/she will also be guilty of an offence.<\/p>\n \nHe\/she will be tried by a court of law and if found guilty will be liable to a fine of ten thousand rupees (Rs.10,000\/=) or less.<\/p>\n In addition to the above penalties, the guilty parties will also be subject to disciplinary control by the relevant disciplinary authorities within their institutions.<\/p>\n [\/toggle]<\/p>\n [toggle title=”\u00a0Can disciplinary action be taken\u00a0 against\u00a0\u00a0 Information Officers and\/or officers\u00a0 designated to receive appeals for violating\u00a0\u00a0 this Act?”]<\/p>\n YES.<\/strong> If any Information Officer;<\/p>\n (i)\u00a0 refuses to receive a request for information;<\/p>\n (ii)\u00a0 refuses a request for information, without giving reasons ;<\/p>\n (iii)\u00a0 demands excessive fees; or<\/p>\n (iv)\u00a0 by any other means fails to process a request for information;<\/p>\n the Commission can bring the matter to the notice of the person or entity exercising disciplinary control over the Information Officer.<\/p>\n Also, if any officer designated to receive appeals intentionally,<\/p>\n (i)\u00a0 Refuses to entertain an appeal on any ground other than a ground under Section 5; or<\/p>\n (ii)\u00a0 Without reason fails to make a decision on the appeal, within the stipulated time<\/p>\n \nthe Commission can bring the matter to the notice of the person or entity exercising disciplinary control over the Designated Officer.<\/p>\n The person or entity exercising disciplinary control over the above officers is required to inform the Commission of the steps he\/she\/it has taken to address the matter within one (01) month.<\/p>\n [\/toggle]<\/p>\n [toggle title=” Can an officer or employee of a Public\u00a0\u00a0 Authority be punished for disclosing\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 information?”]<\/p>\n If the officer discloses information that is allowed to be disclosed under this Act, the officer cannot be subject to disciplinary or any other form of punishment.<\/p>\n [\/toggle]<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [toggle title=”Are there any penalties for violating this Act?”] YES. If any person commits one of the following acts, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rtisrilanka.lk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rtisrilanka.lk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rtisrilanka.lk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rtisrilanka.lk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rtisrilanka.lk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rtisrilanka.lk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":929,"href":"https:\/\/rtisrilanka.lk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/914\/revisions\/929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rtisrilanka.lk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}