Zee
News:
New Delhi: Monday, 01 December 2014.
Medico-legal
case reports cannot be strictly categorised as personal information and
withheld from disclosure, the Central Information Commission has said while
allowing victims of an accident to access reports of other injured persons in
the same mishap.
"In any
eventuality, the MLC reports and other records assume importance in
establishing negligence or otherwise, which will be useful for claiming
insurance money by the injured persons and deceased person," Information
Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said in his order.
The case
related to RTI request by Satbir Singh, who lost his son in an accident.
Through RTI application he had demanded medico-legal reports of other persons
who were also injured in the same accident.
Rao Tula Ram
Memorial Hospital provided partial reply to the queries posed by him and did
not disclose medico-legal reports of two other injured saying their views have
been sought for disclosing details as it was a personal information under the
RTI Act.
But even
after an year, the two accused persons did not give clearance for disclosing
the reports about them when Singh approached the Commission with plea.
"In this
case all the injured persons are involved in same accident, they could be
'accused' and their negligence or innocence need to be established in the court
of law. Hence, MLC and related information cannot be treated as third party
information or personal information," Acharyulu said.
He said there
is public interest in giving such information to the father of the deceased for
whatever worth it is for him, in the interests of criminal justice.
"If the
disclosure of this information to the appellant impedes investigation in any
manner, only then the information can be withheld," he said asking the
hospital to take view from the police station concerned on disclosure.
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