CIC upholds Indian Oil's refusal to disclose records of fuel quality inspection, fraud records

New Delhi, Jul 9 (PTI) The CIC has upheld IOCL's refusal to disclose decade-long nationwide fuel quality inspection and fraud records under the RTI Act despite an applicant's plea that the information was in public interest. The applicant said consumers are "overburdened with the fuel prices" and the information should be centrally maintained in today's digital era. The Central Information Commission accepted the oil major's contention that compiling the data, scattered across its 16 state offices and 73 divisional offices, would disproportionately divert its resources under Section 7(9) of the RTI Act. The order came on an appeal filed by Robin Zaccheus against Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), seeking year-wise data from 2014 to 2023 on inspections conducted to detect poor quality and incorrect quantity of fuel dispensed at retail outlets, chip-based manipulation in fuel dispensing machines, action taken against erring outlets, consumer complaints and vigilance reports. During the hearing, Zaccheus argued that consumers are "overburdened with the fuel prices" and in today's digital era, the respondent ought to maintain such information centrally at its head office. The IOCL submitted that the information was "not readily available" in the format sought. It also told the Commission that it has around 42,000 retail outlets and, under its standard operating procedure, conducts a minimum of two inspections every year at each outlet, amounting to around eight lakh inspections annually. It said it was "not possible to collate the sought information". The Maharatna oil company said that "compiling the sought information for a period of 10 years i.e., from 01.01.2014 to 31.12.2023 would disproportionately divert the resources of their public authority, and hence the sought information was denied U/s 7(9) of the RTI Act, 2005". The Corporation also said "all active retail outlets are being automated to capture the data for better monitoring of RO operations", while dispensing units are being procured with upgraded specifications validated by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). It added that regular training is imparted to retail outlet staff and customer awareness programmes are carried out regularly. Information Commissioner Khushwant Singh Sethi observed that the respondent had already provided the available rules, marketing discipline guidelines, website links and factual information to the appellant while denying the remaining information under Section 7(9) of the RTI Act. "The Commission finds that the respondent gave an appropriate reply to the appellant… Therefore, no further intervention of the Commission is required," the order said while dismissing the appeal. PTI MHS MHS KSS KSS