The
Economic Times: New Delhi: Monday, November 19, 2012.
The Central
Information Commission is all set to issue notices to the Enforcement
Directorate to produce files related to the oil-for-food scam which led to the
ouster of former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh from the Cabinet.
The CIC's
step comes two years after the Supreme Court had rejected the plea of ED
challenging the order of the then Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat
Habibullah directing it to produce files for perusal before deciding on its
disclosure.
The case
could not proceed because of the changes in the post of Chief Information
Commissioners, CIC sources said.
After the
matter was brought to the notice of Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda
Mishra, he immediately ordered his staff to issue notices in this regard which
may be sent in the coming week, they said.
The CIC had
directed the Enforcement Directorate, an exempted organisation under the RTI
Act, to produce the file of the probe into the scam for its perusal to decide
on its disclosure under the Act.
"In our
view, the impugned order does not suffer from any patent legal infirmity
requiring interference under Article 136 of the Constitution," the Supreme
Court had said on the CIC directions and asked the ED to produce all relevant
material before the transparency panel.
The case
relates to application filed by RTI applicant Arun Agrawal who had sought the
entire file containing note sheets relating to the report of Virendra Dayal,
appointed by the government as special envoy to coordinate with UN officials on
the Paul Volcker Committee report.
The Paul
Volcker Committee was set up by the United Nations in April, 2004 to probe
corruption and fraud in its oil-for-food Programme in Iraq, in which name of
former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh also allegedly figured as a
beneficiary.
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