Kashmir Reader: Srinagar: Thursday, 11 February
2016.
The JK Raj Bhawan has denied information to a local
applicant under the Right to Information Act (RTI) while the Home Ministry has
provided the same information to another applicant.
The applicant, Dr Sheikh Ghulam Rasool, who is the patron
of JK RTI Movement, had sought a copy of the proclamation and the
correspondence between the Governor NN Vohra and the Government of India after
the demise of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
However, the information was denied because the Raj
Bhawan Public Information Officer (PIO) had invoked the interim stay of Supreme
Court. “Wherein the Apex court opined that the question of law whether the
Governor is public authority within the meaning of section 2 (h) of the RTI Act
2005,” said the PIO.
The PIO said the “privileged” communication between the
Governor and the Government of India and other matters pertaining to official
functioning cannot be divulged. The Apex court ruling, which the PIO has
referred to, pertains to central RTI Act 2005. But Article 370, a “hollowed
out” special status to Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian constitution, provides a
separate RTI law enacted by the Legislative Assembly in 2009.
Last week, the Governor during a regional RTI conference
had insisted that the RTI law strengthens democracy and weeds out corruption.
“Governor comes under the ambit under the definition of
public authority in the RTI Act. The central government RTI Act is completely
different from JK RTI Act. So, invoking the Supreme Court ruling doesn’t apply
here,” Sheikh said.
However, another RTI applicant from New Delhi associated
with CHRI, Venkatesh Nayak, who had sought the same information was provided it
by the Home Ministry.
Nayak said Governor’s rule was in the interest of the
public and there could be anything confidential in it. “The communication
conducted between the Governor and the Government of India was conducted in the
public interest so that people can have efficient government in absence of an
elected government. By denying information, it will create more harm for the
public interest,” Nayak told Kashmir Reader.
He said the central RTI legislation and the JK RTI Act
are completely different laws and the central law does not govern the JK
Governor. “Denying information by the Governor is absolutely unacceptable and I
think he, being an advocate of transparency, should have provided the
information. The good thing is that the Home Ministry has set an example of
transparency by granting the information,” he added.
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