India Today: New Delhi: Tuesday, August 22, 2017.
The Central
Information Commission has directed the union urban development ministry to
disclose lease agreement documents of the land for the Moolchand Hospital
within a week.
Information
Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad said the information as sought by the appellant
Harvinder Singh, a resident of Lajpat Nagar here, is undeniably one which every
citizen has a right to know.
Through his
RTI application, Singh had demanded from the Ministry the lease agreement of
the land for Moolchand Hospital, the copy of documents submitted by Moolchand
Kharaiti Ram Charitable Trust for the allotment of the land and the policy
under which the land was allocated to it.
The Ministry
official responding to his RTI query asked him to furnish documentary proof to
establish his stake in the Moolchand Khairati Ram Trust within 10 days.
Under the RTI
Act, a Central Public Information Officer cannot ask an information seeker the
reasons behind raising the query.
"After
hearing parties and perusal of record, the Commission finds that no legitimate
exemption in terms of RTI Act have been cited by the Respondent (the ministry)
to deny disclosure of information," Azad said.
He said the
ministry has taken the "unusual route" of questioning the purpose of
the query and the locus standi of Singh in seeking the information.
"It is
clear from the averment of the Respondent (the Ministry) that the custodian of
information is the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India which
awarded the land under lease agreement to the Moolchand hospital," Azad
said.
He directed
to disclose all the material sought by Singh. PTI ABS IKA