DNA: Mumbai: Saturday, October
22, 2016.
The Central
Information Commission (CIC) in its order has rejected a plea of providing
inquiry / investigation report of the collision and sinking of INS Vindhyagiri,
that capsized off Mumbai harbour on January 31, 2011.
The RTI
application was filed by DNA. Also denied by CIC is the information sought on
the action taken against officers and people responsible for the collision and
sinking. INS Vindhyagiri, a war ship had collided with a Cyprus flagged
Merchant Vessel M V Nordlake. The public information officer (PIO) of the
Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy) denied information citing
section 8 (1) (a) of the RTI Act, 2005. The section reads: "information,
disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of
India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State,
relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence."
The order
which does not have a date of decision taken - the information commission
office when contacted stated that the date of hearing is date of order - was
passed by central information commissioner, Amitava Bhattacharya. It was
received on October 18 after several follow ups from the commission which held
the hearing on August 23, 2016. The order comes weeks after another order from
central information commissioner, D P Sinha, which the navy to provide details
of the inquiry report in which an aviator died. Father of an aviator who died
had sought details of the inquiry report from the navy, which navy had denied.
The RTI
application of May 29, 2013 sought action taken on officers and people found
guilty, the year, price and whether the ward ship was made indigenously, the
present status of it and its future plan, and initiatives taken by government
to ensure no future collisions happen.
Upholding
PIO's reply, the commission order stated: "On perusal of record, the
commission came to be satisfied with the CPIO's plea about the exemption
claimed u/s 8(1)(a) of the Act. It observed that parting of information about
the investigation / inquiry report on the collision and sinking and action
taken on such report may have a deleterious impact on the strategic interest of
the country in this sector as stipulated in section 8(1) (a) of the RTI
Act."
"It is a
very bad order. What is the point of having a second appeal if the commissions
are just going to parrot what the public information officers say. There should
be some explanation as to how the sections were applied. There are two
possibilities in such a case. Either commission is convinced that authority
should provide details, then it should direct the same. In other case, if they
feel that strategic interest will be harmed, and that is what is told to them
by the officers - even if privately - they should state that sharing the
reasons too would damage the country. The order like this is a very bad order.
In my case also two appeals have been rejected due to lack of understanding of
the law," said Shailesh Gandhi, former central information commissioner.
Info
provided by PIO
INS
Vindhyagiri is a frigate and falls under the category of 'Major War Ship'. The
ship was designed in Mazgaon Dock Ltd, Mumbai and was commissioned into Indian
Navy on July 8 1981 at a cost of Rs 32 crores. The ship was decommissioned on
11 June 2012 (post collision) and subsequently disposed off as a 'target' at
sea.
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