DNA: Mumbai: Thursday, September 11, 2014.
Following the
row over CBI chief Ranjit Sinha allegedly meeting representatives of companies
facing probes by the agency, the demand to bring the premier investigation
agency under the ambit of the Right To Information (RTI) Act has resurfaced. At
present, it is under the exempted category after a circular in 2011 took it out
of RTI reach.
"The
department of personnel and training, which came out with the circular
exempting CBI from RTI, did not give any reason for doing so. When an order was
passed that they provide information, the CBI moved the court and obtained a
stay. The court too has not given any reason why the stay had been
granted," rued Shailesh Gandhi, former central information commissioner
(CIC).
It was
Gandhi, who through an order, had asked the organisation to provide information
on the ground that CBI was not an intelligence or security agency to be
considered for exemption.
"All
across they have been called just an investigative agency. They were obviously
exempted from RTI because a number of scams came tumbling out and the Government
did not want people to get information under the RTI," said Gandhi.
Ranjit Sinha,
the CBI director, has already raised questions about the authenticity of the
contents of the 'diary'. His contention has been that CBI is outside RTI, so
those possessing it (diary) could not have procured it through RTI. "In
fact, the section that was cited to keep it out of RTI ambit very clearly
states that intelligence or security agencies are exempted. The SC has given
too much time to a powerful man to prove that the Allegations against him are
wrong. It's time CBI is brought under RTI," said Gandhi.
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