Livemint: New Delhi: Monday, March
06, 2017.
The finance
ministry has refused to disclose whether its boss Arun Jaitley was consulted
before the announcement of demonetisation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8
November, 2016.
The prime
minister’s office (PMO) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had earlier claimed
that the query whether the finance minister and the chief economic advisor were
consulted before the announcement does not come under the definition of
“information” under the RTI Act. The definition of “information” under the Act
refers to “any material in any form” under the control of a public authority.
The response
of the finance ministry to an RTI query filed by Press Trust of India (PTI)
assumes significance as it acknowledges that there are records pertaining to
the question but they cannot be disclosed under the Right to Information Act.
The finance ministry has taken refuge under the exemption clause of section
8(1)(a) of the Act to deny the information.
It did not,
however, give any reasons as to how the information would attract the section.
The section allows withholding 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”.
According to
procedure, a first appeal can be filed with the ministry concerned which is to
be handled by a senior official. If it is unsuccessful, the matter escalates to
the Central Information Commission, the top adjudicating body on the RTI Act.
The three key
institutions which are directly related to the move of demonetization the PMO,
the RBI and the finance ministry have refused to disclose information about the
sudden measure on different pretexts. The finance ministry is the latest
respondent.
The RTI Act
has specific provision which allows records attracting its exemption clauses to
be disclosed “if public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the
protected interests”. “The clause of public interest would apply where
exemption clause applies on the information sought by an applicant. In the
present case, the information sought does not attract any exemption clause,”
former central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi told PTI.
He said the
law is very clear: when a public authority rejects to disclose information it
must give clear reasons as to how the exemption clause would apply in the given
case. On the responses of the PMO and the RBI, former chief information
commissioner A.N. Tiwari had said that their replies are wrong as the applicant
had sought to know a fact which would be part of records hence an “information”
under the RTI Act.
Notes of
Rs1,000 and Rs500 ceased to be legal tender after a surprise announcement by
the PM on 8 November last year.