Indecopi interprets in favor of the administrations and declares illegal the limitation of sending requests through “remote data transmission means” only during institutional hours of face-to-face service to the public. Learn more here. [Resolution No. 481-2021 / SEL-INDECOPI]
Indecopi highlights the importance of a Good Electronic Administration, for which it establishes that the documents presented by digital means are considered received on the same day and time of their submission.
What was the case?
Institución Educativa Privada Rayito de Luz submitted a request for authorization of operation to the Regional Directorate of Education of Metropolitan Lima via email on October 30, 2019, with 20 minutes remaining until 11:00 p.m., considering it presented on October 4, 2019. November 2019 as this is the next business day under the argument that it was entered after the hours of face-to-face attention to the public.
Therefore, the Regional Directorate of Education of Metropolitan Lima indicated that the electronic submission of the application for authorization of operation and registration of the Rayito de Luz Private Educational Institution was limited to the institutional hours established for face-to-face attention to the public.
What is at issue in this case?
What is being discussed, then, is the legality or illegality of the bureaucratic barrier referred to the limitation of the hours required by the Ministry, which would determine the date of presentation of the request.
This discussion focuses on the way in which article 134 of the Single Ordered Text of the Law of General Administrative Procedure should be interpreted.
On the one hand, Minedu concludes that this article must be interpreted jointly with article 149 of the same regulation and, in this sense, the companies should be governed by the business hours of the entity to which they intend to resort, even when it concerns of the submission of documents by means of remote data transmission.
On the other hand, we have the interpretation of Indecopi, which indicates that when the documents initially sent through remote data transmission systems are physically presented, the letter (s) will be considered received on the date the email was sent, without being relevant the time of submission of the documentation.
So, what does Indecopi conclude?
Indecopi has considered that Minedu acted in a manner contrary to what is contemplated in the article under debate, based on the provisions of article II and IV of the Preliminary Title of the LPAG.
Consequently, article 134 of the TUO of the LPAG cannot and should not be interpreted in a restrictive way, but in a broad way, in favor of the administered ones with the aim of favoring their interests and the elimination of all unnecessary obstacles, so that it always prevails the end of the procedural act in compliance with the principles of informalism, reasonableness, efficiency and simplicity.
Read and/or download the resolution HERE
Source: Publised in the official website of La Ley, the legal angle of the news
