Delhi High Court stays order of CIC against CBI

Hary M. Pillai ,Law Et Al News, 30 June 2011

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Wednesday stayed an order passed by the Central Information Commission on 11 May 2011 in a writ petition preferred by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking to quash the impugned order. The bench of Justice ML Mehta also issued notice to the respondent in the matter.

One Krishnanand Tripathi had filed some Right to Information (RTI) applications, in September 2010, seeking from the CBI details regarding the bank fraud cases the agency had filed against Sant Singh Chatwal, including the opinion and recommendations of the Director of Prosecution (DoP).

The agency refused to provide the details on the ground that apart from the two cases in which Chatwal was an accused and was later discharged by the court, two more cases which are inter connected with the cases already disposed off were pending before the same court and thus they are exempted from providing details under section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act.

Section 8(1) (h) of the Act exempts disclosure of, "information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders."

The Commission after hearing the arguments had directed the Public Information Officer (PIO) to provide the complete information to the applicant before 30 May 2011.

CBI provided the chargesheet and the judgments concerning the cases against Chatwal, but refused to provide the opinions and the recommendations of the DoP on the ground that it intends to challenge the decision of the Commission in a writ before the High Court.

The commission had fixed the next date of hearing on June 29 on which date the PIO was to present his arguments.

The CBI instead filed a petition before the Delhi High Court today seeking the stay of the proceedings being conducted before the CIC as well as quashing of the order of the commission.The case will come up for hearing next on July 28.