Indian Express: New Delhi: Monday, 13 July 2015.
Slamming the Union Ministry of Environment and
Forests (MoEF) for denying information on Haryana whistleblower Indian Forest
Service officer Sajiv Chaturvedi, who has allegedly been harassed by different
governments, the CIC said people have the right to information about working of
or obstruction to both the political executive and bureaucratic machinery.
The Central Information Commission (CIC) also
asked the Centre to disclose complete communications between the Prime
Minister’s Office (PMO) and Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT)
regarding Chaturvedi as sought by RTI applicant Subhash Chandra Agrawal.
The MoEF had earlier denied information on the
ground that it was personal information exempted from disclosure under the RTI
Act.
But, the CIC ruled that denial of information in
this case was not legally correct.
“The information sought is not Chaturvedi’s
personal details. It is only a lame excuse put forward by the Central Public
Information Officer (CPIO) just to deny the information,” said the CIC in its
order, adding that Chaturvedi had no objection to sharing this information.
The CIC further said the information pertains to
the public activity of the public servant working at the top level and the matter
related to his performance of duty, leading to harassment from the embarrassed
political leaders in the form of
frequent transfers or assignment of unimportant tasks.
“As the issue pertains to protecting the honest
officers, who are fearlessly performing their duties inviting the wrath of
political bosses and fighting against corruption, as revealed by the news items referred to in
the RTI application, the disclosure of information will serve the public interest,”
it said.
The information commission said in a democracy
people have the right to information about the working of or obstruction to
both the political executive and bureaucratic machinery.
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