NDTV: New Delhi: Monday, July 03, 2017.
The Central
Information Commission has directed the government to proactively put in the
public domain data about officials facing corruption cases in each department.
The
transparency watchdog has directed the Department of Personnel and Training to
ensure that "numerical" data of government officials facing
corruption charges should be brought out in public domain but not their names.
"In no
circumstances, names of the employees facing charges shall be disclosed,"
Information Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad said.
He directed
that year-wise numeric data about pending as well as disposed departmental,
vigilance, court cases against their employees initiated at instance of the
employer, rank held by the employee named in a charge sheet and details of
outcome in terms of finding should be on websites.
The
commissioner said dynamic numeric data relating to departmental and vigilance
proceedings falls within the purview of Section 4(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 which
mandates the government departments to place information about their
functioning in public domain.
"Disclosure
of such data shall serve as a tool in better governance and thus undoubtedly
serve larger public interest," he said.
Mr Azad was
adjudicating the cases of Ashok Kumar Reddy, who wanted information from
various departments about officials facing corruption charges.
He had filed
51 RTI applications for the same but they were wrongly addressed only to chief
secretary, government of Delhi who had no access to the information.
"The
complainant (Reddy), who seems to be on a mission to catalogue a directory of
'corrupt officers' in the employment of government of India, sent as many as 51
RTI applications aimed to gather details of all tainted employees," he
said.
Mr Azad said
he left the modalities of executing his orders on the public authority
concerned.