Anuja & Appu Esthose Suresh; livemint.com; WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2010
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has reaffirmed that government organizations such as the Enforcement Directorate that have been exempted from making disclosures under the Right to Information (RTI) Act were required to provide information sought on cases of suspected corruption.
CIC’s ruling on 28 September came in response to an appeal filed by petitioner V.R Chandran, who had earlier been denied information by the Enforcement Directorate on grounds that it did not come under the purview of the RTI Act.
The organization investigates foreign exchange rule violations.
CIC’s ruling was posted on its website.
Chandran had sought information from the directorate to “either confirm or deny the media reports about the likely volume of black money stashed away in foreign banks illegally by Indian nationals.”
The Enforcement Directorate, along with 17 other intelligence and security organizations, is exempted from disclosure obligations under the RTI Act.
“The Enforcement Directorate can let the country know as to how much is the total sum of such money they are dealing with in their current investigations,” CIC ruled on the appeal.
It, however, added that the directorate need not disclose the nature of investigations into cases of suspected corruption or the names of suspects being probed.
“The exempted organizations are exempted from the regular cases, but not from the cases pertaining to corruption and human rights violation,” information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi of the Central Information Commission said on Tuesday.
Former chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said the commission would be allowed to inspect files of exempted organizations pertaining to suspected corruption.
If the commission deems the information “fit to be disclosed in public interest, it is well within its right to do so,” he said.
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