Calcutta Telegraph: New Delhi: Monday,
March 27, 2017.
The Reserve
Bank of India has refused to answer the Right to Information Act query why
resident Indians weren't allowed to deposit their old currency notes till the
promised date of March 31 this year.
According to
the Reserve Bank, the subject of the query does not come under the definition
of "information" as provided in the transparency law.
In his
November 8 speech announcing the demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
had said people could deposit their old 500 and 1,000-rupee notes in their bank
accounts till March 31.
Later, it was
decided that the window would be kept open till March 31 only for non-resident
Indians, who are a major support base for the ruling BJP.
In its
response to the RTI query, the Reserve Bank refused to share the file notings
on that decision, saying it would go against the economic interests of the
State.
The Supreme
Court too is hearing the matter of the deadline for the deposition of old currency
notes. Attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi is believed to have told the court that
the law would prevail over the Prime Minister's words.
The RTI
applicant had sought the reasons, as "recorded" in the Reserve Bank's
files, behind the decision not to allow resident Indians to convert their old
currency till March 31.
Suman Ray,
the central public information officer, said in his response that the applicant
was seeking reasons or justification, which is not defined as
"information" in Section 2(f) of the RTI Act.
A Supreme
Court judgment had said that if opinion or advice was available in a public
authority's records, it would come under the definition of
"information" under the RTI Act.
Former
information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said that Section 8(2) of the RTI Act
allows the disclosure even of exempted information if it is in the larger
public interest.
According to
the RTI Act, "information" is "any material in any form"
held by or under the control of a public authority.
This covers
"any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, emails,
opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts,
reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and
information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public
authority under any other law for the time being in force".
But the
Reserve Bank has stonewalled almost every RTI query relating to demonetisation,
citing one reason or the other.
It has
refused to reveal whether the views of finance minister Arun Jaitley or the
chief economic adviser had been taken before the demonetisation was announced.
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