Times of India: New Delhi:
Thursday, October 03, 2013.
The central
information commission (CIC) has asked the government to disclose reasons for
first rejecting and then extending American historian Peter Heehs's visa in
April 2012. Heehs's book " The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" ran into
controversy with some groups protesting that facts had been distorted by the
author.
Heehs was
living in India for nearly 40 years during which he had been working on the
digitization and archiving the works of spiritual guru Sri Aurobindo in
Puducherry.
After the
book sparked angry reactions from the followers of Sri Aurobindo, Heehs was
told by the Union home ministry about the decision that his visa would not be
extended and he needs to leave the country by the middle of April, 2012.
The decision
was later reviewed after several eminent personalities wrote to the government
protesting against the decision.
Following the
episode, appellant Amit Bhargava sought to know from the home ministry the
grounds of denial, review and the extension given to Heehs.
The ministry
said it had provided only selective information on the episode severing
information that could not be disclosed under the provisions of section 8(1)(a)
of the RTI Act which prohibits information pertaining to security of the
country and other similar issues.
Bhargava
said, "In the present case, public interest in disclosure outweighs the
harm to the protected interests and therefore the CPIO be directed not to
severe any information."
Agreeing with
Bhargava, information commissioner Sushma Singh directed the home ministry to
provide complete information along with file notings related to the episode.
However, she
refused to pass a similar order for his request seeking information from the
Intelligence Bureau (IB) on the issue as it is an exempted organization.
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