DNA: Mumbai: Wednesday, October 29, 2014.
While it's
still being worked out how to tackle the govt notification that states
"public interest" be proved before giving information, the opinion on
its reach is uniform. The media interpretation of the notification is that
information need not be provided to those seeking personal information.
"It's a
badly drafted notification which was not needed because whatever it states is
already mentioned in the Act. On the one hand we have court orders that state
public figures should give their personal (asset) details because people need
to know, on the other hand, a notification states that they should not
be," said Shailesh Gandhi, former central information commissioner.
It is because
of this that the motives of the notification is being questioned. "The
very first question that should be put to the government is that why does it
keep bringing out circulars whenever there is a court order? Why a circular
this time? The administration obviously saw this as a chance to save itself as
something similar had been done by politicians. Politicians tried to save
themselves by keeping ACB out, and officials want information about them safe
guarded," said Vijay Kumbhar, whose queries had brought out the ACB
circular.
"In
fact, the Act states that no information can be denied to a person if it cannot
be denied to the state legislature or parliament. The notification has been put
out only to create impediments in the implementation of the RTI Act," said
Bhaskar Prabhu, another RTI activist.
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