Free
Press Journal: New Delhi: Thursday, 02 October 2014.
The Central
Information Commission has directed the country’s largest prison Tihar to make
public death warrant of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru along with copies
of communication sent to his family informing about the date of execution.
34-year-old
Mohammad Afzal Guru was convicted for his role in the December 2001 terrorist
attack on Parliament and hanged on February 9, 2013.
In a stern
order, Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu said any RTI application
(in this case seeking details of Afzal Guru’s execution) cannot be rejected
lock, stock and barrel without application of mind and citing exemption under
Section 8 without justifying the defence.
The
Commission directed the Tihar authorities to provide to RTI applicant Paras
Nath Singh certified copy of death warrant for the execution of Guru.
The case
relates to Singh’s application seeking among other details death warrant and
video recording of Guru’s execution. The Tihar authorities refused to provide
any information, saying it would endanger national security.
“The
Commission finds this rejection of RTI application in toto is without any
application of mind and without examining each and every point, separating the
information that can be given from one that cannot be given using doctrine of
severability provided under section 10,” Sridhar said.
He said
neither the CPIO nor First Appellate Authority of Tihar gave any reasoning for
claiming exemption under section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act.
“The
Commission suggests that the public authorities, their CPIOs and Appellate
Authorities should desist from rejecting the RTI applications lock, stock and
barrel without giving any reason or justification the exemption claimed which
compels the applicant to approach the Commission,” he said.
The appellant
pleaded before the Commission that he wanted the date on which the
communication was sent to Guru’s family informing them about the execution to
know whether sufficient time was given to them.
“The Commission
observed that denying copy of death warrant, copy of communication sent to the
family of Afzal Guru about execution is devoid of reason and thus arbitrary and
unreasonable,” Sridhar said.
The
Information Commissioner asked the Central Public Information Officer of Tihar
how disclosure of death warrant of Guru would endanger national security to
which he said it might create a law and order situation and endanger lives of
the people.
The Tihar
CPIO later agreed that endangering the nation is totally different from the
possibility of creating law and order problem, the Commission noted in his
order.
On the issue
of disclosing video recording of Guru’s execution, the CPIO said he would have
to check whether the execution was video recorded or not.
“The
Commission agrees that seeking video recording of execution of Afzal and name
of the officer who fixed the date of execution are hit by 8(1)(g) and even the
petitioner tried to prove public interest in this, it cannot be given as per
the RTI Act,” he said.
Sridhar
directed the CPIO to not give video recording of execution of Guru but inform
the application whether there was a video recording or not.
He also
directed the authorities to withhold the name of official who fixed the date of
execution as it could cause serious risk to the life of the officer.
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