Times
of India: Chandigarh: Friday, 04 September 2015.
The Punjab
and Haryana high court on Wednesday issued notice to the Punjab home
department, ADGP (intelligence) and the state information commission (SIC) on a
plea against the commission's orders declining a report submitted by former DGP
(prisons) Shashi Kant to an applicant under the RTI Act. Justice Mahesh Grover
of the high court issued the notice while hearing a petition filed by Dr
Sandeep Kumar Gupta.
The
petitioner had submitted an application under the Right to Information Act in
May 2013, for information from the office of principal secretary (home) on a
report prepared by Shashi Kant in which names of some politicians were
mentioned for their involvement in smuggling of drugs. Initially, the intelligence
wing had taken the stand that it was an exempted organization under Section 24
of the RTI Act. However, it later denied possessing any such report. The
petitioner's appeal against the denial of information was also dismissed by the
SIC.
While
challenging SIC orders, the petitioner has argued before the high court that
merely making the statement that information was not available on record was
not sufficient under the RTI Act.
Counsel for
the petitioner, Sardavinder Goyal contended that the state was changing its
stand according to its suitability which was not sustainable in the eyes of
law. Counsel submitted that such arguments were also raised before the SIC by
him but the commission has not given any reason to discard the same. The case would
now come up for hearing on January 8, 2016.
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