New Delhi: In a first ruling of its kind, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Railways to recover the expenditure borne by one of its employees on travelling to attend RTI hearings from him.

"The DRM, Western Railways, Bhavnagar (Gujarat), is directed to consider recovery of the expenditure incurred on the officials for attending hearing on January 15, 2010 from the salary of the appellant, who is held responsible for misusing the provisions of the RTI Act by filing frivolous petitions before the Commission even though there are no refusal of information to him," Information Commissioner M.M. Ansari ruled.

C.P. Singh, a railway employee, had sought to know the grounds of his transfer from Western Railways. Not satisfied with the response of the Railways, Singh approached the CIC.

Interestingly, there is no mention of imposing any fine or penalty on the RTI applicant in the law.

The order further said that the modalities of recovery of the costs incurred on the officials of the respondent should be decided and determined by the respondent, as per the service rules under which the appellant is governed.