Livemint: New Delhi: Saturday,
April 09, 2016.
The Delhi
high court on Friday issued notice to Right to Information (RTI) activist Aseem
Takyar on an appeal brought by the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund
(PMNRF) against a single-judge order that allowed disclosure of the names of
institutional donors to the fund.
A bench
comprising chief justice G Rohini and justice Jayant Nath sought a reply on the
appeal seeking quashing of the single judge’s order allowing for disclosure of
donations made by institutions to the fund.
Senior
Advocate Jasmeet Singh, counsel for the Centre (Prime Minister’s office)
contended that such information was private and must be kept confidential.
On 19
November, 2015, Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw dismissed a petition seeking the
quashing of an order passed by the Central Information Commission (CIC), which
had allowed the disclosure and publishing of names of institutional donors to
the fund from time to time.
“In our view,
unless the donor has desired his donation to be kept a confidential and secret,
disclosure of the list of donors periodically may be a good idea. At least, the
names of institutional donors should surely be published.” the CIC said in its
order of 6 June, 2015.
The CIC’s
order came in response to an RTI application filed by Takyar which sought
details of the donors to and beneficiaries of the PM’s Relief Fund between 2009
and 2011.
The court
will hear the matter next on 9 May.
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