The Indian Express: New Delhi: Monday, January 22, 2018.
Terming the
records pertaining to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination as part of India’s
“cultural heritage”, the Delhi High Court has asked the Centre how it intends
to collect and maintain the entire case information as was directed by
transparency panel CIC. The poser by Justice Vibhu Bakhru came while hearing a
plea by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) challenging an order of the Central
Information Commission (CIC) which had directed it to provide the police
investigation’s original records including the case diaries and final charge
sheet to an RTI applicant.
The CIC had
also directed Delhi Police to provide information about efforts made by it to
arrest three absconders Gangadhar Dahawate, Surya Dev Sharma and Gangadhar
Yadav. The home ministry told the court that it was not the authority which had
all the information and it would probably be available with the Ministry of
Culture, the National Archives or Delhi Police.
It also told
the court that the Ministry of Culture was working on collecting and preserving
the information pertaining to the case as the directions were also issued to it
by the CIC. The court, however, said if the records were not available with the
home ministry, it can access or call for the same from other authorities.
It asked the
home ministry how it intended to ensure maximum implementation of the objective
of the CIC order. “Tell us how you are going to do it,” it queried and the
ministry’s lawyer said he will have to seek instructions. The court,
thereafter, listed the matter for further hearing on February 12.
The CIC order
had come on a plea by Odisha-based RTI applicant Hemant Panda who had told the
commission that he was a researcher and interested in studying the records
pertaining to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi who was shot dead on January
30, 1948 by Nathuram Godse, a right-wing activist.
Panda had
claimed that he had studied the records, including those in the repository of
the National Archives of India (NAI), but could not find two important
documents– the final charge sheet by Delhi Police and order of execution of
Godse.
In his RTI
application, Panda had raised three queries on which he needed clarity the
efforts made to arrest the absconders in the case, the reasons for acquitting
other two accused and whether a copy of final charge sheet and order of
execution of Godse are missing from the records.
The CIC had
directed Delhi Police to transfer its original records, which show its efforts
to trace the absconders in the case, to the NAI for preservation.
The
commission had also noted that there was “no official compilation of records at
one place about his death”.
“The police
have a duty to explain what efforts were taken to arrest three absconding
accused or why they could not be traced. The Ministry of Home Affairs has an
onerous responsibility to take up this task and place all of those records with
the NAI for general access of the public,” the CIC had said.