Business Standard: New Delhi: Friday,
April 22, 2016.
In a
significant order, the Central Information Commission today directed the
Intelligence Bureau, an organisation exempted from RTI Act, to make public its
report on alleged harassment of whistleblower IFoS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi
saying it pertains to allegations of Human Rights violations and corruption.
It is very
rarely that India's snooping agency is asked to disclose its records by the
CIC. IB is an organisation listed under the Section 24 of the RTI Act which
exempts intelligence and security organisations from the purview of the
transparency law.
The Act,
however, does not extend this exemption to the material held by or under the
control of such organisations which pertains to allegations of human rights
violations or corruption. The Act also does not differentiate whether
allegations are against officials of the agency or not.
"The
Commission approves that the copy of the IB report concerning the appellant, as
sought by him is the information pertaining to allegations of corruption and
human rights violations and thus shall be given to the appellant. Hence the
Commission directs the IB or MoEF to provide certified copy of IB report
relating to Sanjiv Chaturvedi, sought through RTI dated December 05, 2015 as
soon as possible not beyond May 6, 2016," Information Commissioner Sridhar
Acharyulu said.
Chaturvedi,
who exposed alleged forestry scam in Haryana, had sought the copy of IB report,
which was sent to Cabinet Secretary and the Ministry of Environment and Forests
in August, 2014, on the issue of allegedly "foisting false cases against
him in retaliation of his investigation and reports against major corruption in
the state".
Organisation
exempted under the section have been misconstruing the Act to claim that since
allegations of corruption and human rights violations are not against their
officials, the information sought cannot be disclosed which is contrary to the
provisions of the law.
In a lengthy
33-pages order, Acharyulu said it is "factually proved that appellant was
put to extreme hardship by the corrupt political rulers and corrupt public
servants in retaliation of his unstinted implementation of rule of law."
"Section
24 of RTI Act does not authorize the public authorities exempted under this
section to block entire information held by it or generated and given to other
public authorities enbloc, but its exclusion from disclosure is limited to that
which pertains to core functioning of 'security' and 'intelligence' aspect of
exempted organization," he said.
The
Information Commissioner said the IB report is "information" as per
Section 2(f) held by Environment Ministry and also pertaining to the allegation
of corruption or human rights violation as per Section 24 second proviso and
hence certified copy of the same shall be given to the appellant.
"The
public authorities exempted under section 24 cannot use it to stonewall all RTI
requests indiscriminately. The IB has a statutory duty to make all arrangements
to provide the information other than that concerning 'security' and
'intelligence' if it pertains to corruption or human rights violation, or
useful to prevent corruption or human rights violation, either under voluntary
disclosure clauses or other provisions of RTI Act," he said.
Lauding the
role of Chaturvedi in exposing corruption in Haryana, Acharyulu said the
Constitutional governance should not allow people to lose faith in Satyamev
Jayate (the national motto which means truth alone triumphs) or Dharmo
Rakshathi Rakshitah(You protect rule of law, it protects you).
"No
public servant should be prosecuted for prosecuting corrupt babus or corrupt
netas for eating away huge public money," the Information Commissioner
said.
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