Economic Times: New Delhi: Tuesday, November 04, 2014.
The disclosure of charge-sheets filed by an
investigation agency cannot be withheld on the ground it will impede the probe,
the Central Information Commission has ordered.
However, the Commission added a caveat that making
them public has to be decided on a case to case basis whether the information
contained in it comes under exemption clauses given in Sections 8 or 9 of the RTI Act.
"The Commission holds that the charge-sheet is a public document and it
shall be disclosed subject to other restrictions provided under RTI Act. There
cannot be a general hard and fast rule that every charge-sheet could be
disclosed or should not be," Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu
today said in his order which will have a wide ranging impact.
"As per the Criminal Procedure, the charge-sheet is the end product of
investigation. With filing of charge-sheet, the investigation is closed and
defense that investigation might get impeded does not stand at all," he
said.
He added that the next question is "whether
revealing the information impedes apprehension or prosecution".
The Commissioner said charge-sheet can neither be
prohibited "enbloc" from disclosure nor disclosed totally.
So far the investigation agencies were taking a
plea that charge-sheets can only be accessed from the court under the
provisions of the CrPC and cannot be shared under the RTI Act despite the Act
having overriding powers.
The case relates to RTI application filed by one
Usha Kant Asiwal seeking information about a probe carried out by the
Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Delhi Government.
In a detailed order, Acharyulu said the
charge-sheet is like a file or record held by the investigating officer, or
public authority or court of law.
As per the RTI Act, any information held by the
public authority can be accessed by the citizen subject to the exemptions under
Section 8, he said.
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